Commercial agriculture is ‘most important driver’ of deforestation

Published in ERW, 15 Nov 2012

An international team claims to have the most comprehensive assessment yet of the drivers behind deforestation and forest degradation in the developing world. The assessment, which confirms agriculture as the main driver of deforestation, could help international organizations develop strategies to reduce carbon emissions.

Deforestation is being tackled internationally by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), through the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) programme. REDD seeks to give financial incentives to developing countries to reduce deforestation and forest degradation – the latter is essentially the thinning out of forests during processes such as selective logging. Meanwhile REDD’s offshoot programme, REDD+, seeks to deliver other benefits, such as biodiversity conservation. […]

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