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Britain, Norway launch fund to preserve Congo Basin rainforest
London (AFP) June 17, 2008 The prime ministers of Britain and Norway on Tuesday launched a multi-million-pound initiative to preserve the rainforest in the Congo Basin, which has been described as "the world's second lung." Gordon Brown and Jens Stoltenberg announced the 100-million-pound (125.8 million euro, 195 million dollar) fund in cooperation with the Commission for the Forests of Central Africa (COMIFAC) and the African Development Bank. Each country will contribute 50 million pounds, while Britain pledged an additional eight million pounds. Britain's Department for International Development said the money would help create a satellite monitoring system to give the first detailed view of the rate of deforestation in the Congo, with the pictures beamed direct to Central Africa. Stoltenberg said as much as one fifth of current greenhouse gas emissions were caused by deforestation, but experts believed the emissions could be substantially lowered in a relatively short period. "To reduce total emissions the global community will have to take urgent action," he said at the launch of the initiative in London. "A reduction of the emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is essential to address climate change. "We believe that the Congo Basin Forest Fund is a good example of a mechanism by which developed countries can help shoulder the financial burden of developing countries making significant emissions reductions." Covering an area twice the size of France, the Congo Basin rainforest straddles six countries and is home to more than 50 million people, 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds and 400 species of mammals. A UN study found that if action is not taken immediately to tackle deforestation then more than 66 percent of the rainforest will be lost by 2040. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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If A Tree Falls In The Forest And No One Hears It Does The Climate Change
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 17, 2008There are roughly 42 million square kilometers of forest on Earth, a swath that covers almost a third of the land surface, and those wooded environments play a key role in both mitigating and enhancing global warming. |
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