Silva Tree SA, who are actively working towards halting deforestation by launching avoided deforestation projects and developing educational schemes to encourage others to do the same, have long awaited such an ambassador for their cause.
13 million hectares of forests are deforested annually (Thoumi, 2009) accounting for 20-25% of the world’s Carbon emissions (NASA) - that’s more than all the planes, trains and cars on the planet. These emissions are believed to be one of the main causes of global climate change.
During his much publicized 16,000-mile tour of South America, Prince Charles states the importance of saving the rainforest and how this essential objective can be achieved, he says “The most important thing is to ensure that the rainforests are worth more alive than dead…”
It is difficult to imagine how landowners can make rainforests valuable without destroying them- cutting down rainforests for timber, agriculture or development (to name but a few of possible land uses) is an intuitively profitable activity, but how can landowners do nothing with their land and still make money?
The answer lies with an invisible product created by the vegetation of these vast forests. The plants silently craft something which is more valuable that all the fruit, timber and cattle in the world- Oxygen (or, to be more precise, the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere). Rainforests absorb Carbon Dioxide and emit Oxygen when they breathe, a process which is crucial to their ecosystems, resident fauna and ultimately the fight against global warming. Moreover, this giant lung can actually generate money for its owners, as several organizations such as Silva Tree are now proving.
Various ideas have been put forward by scholars and environmental thinkers about how maintaining the world’s rainforests can be made profitable, but arguably the most viable strategy is the Carbon offset credit production model. The idea is that by creating a project whereby rainforests are actively protected, more CO2 is taken out of the atmosphere than if the land had been put to other uses involving deforestation. Thus Carbon offset credits can be generated by the activity of preservation and these can be sold generating an income for the landowner. Of course, difficulties and complications arise within such projects and various methodologies which attempt to account for all aspects of error and permanence are still under development.
Due to the scarcity of approved methodologies, certified REDD projects are difficult to achieve and land owners could be forgiven for shying away from them. It will take many more activists such as the Prince of Wales to convince the world that making avoided deforestation profitable is the only way to stop one of the main causes of CO2 emissions on the planet.
Some private landowners, however, feel the need to fight for REDD, and this is why Silva Tree include a variety of education programs in their work, helping people all over the world to understand the importance of the rainforests and how they can be saved in an economically advantageous manner. Silva Tree design and implement their own Carbon offset forestry projects whilst helping other landowners and local communities achieve the same goals. The organization’
“There is very little information available to the public about how to design a carbon offset project, if you don’t have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on professional advice and expertise, it is very difficult to achieve a successful project. If more people were able to create these types of projects for themselves, we would see not just the benefits to the environment, but also massive economic benefits to some of the world’s poorest communities.”
Silva Tree are launching a range of incentives and activities in anticipation of Earth day on the 22nd April. The programs include sponsored trips to Costa Rica to view the work being done to save this Tropical paradise and reinstate the original forest which has been cut down for commercial purposes.
For more info, please contact Silva Tree SA:
Tel: 08712445173 / (+44)(0)20 8446 6008
Fax: 08712445175 / (+44)(0)20 8492 8471
Email: office@silvatree.com
Website. www.silvatree.com
