World Must Plant Trees, Halt Deforestation To Combat Climate Change - FAO Director

World Must Plant Trees, Halt Deforestation to Combat Climate Change - FAO Director

The world must plant more trees and stop deforestation, which could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 14%, mitigating climate change, Qu Dongyu, Director General of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said on Monday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd October, 2022) The world must plant more trees and stop deforestation, which could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 14%, mitigating climate change, Qu Dongyu, Director General of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said on Monday.

Halting deforestation is "key to tackling the climate crisis by both cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 14 percent and safeguarding more than half the Earth's terrestrial biodiversity," Qu said at the opening of the 26th Session of the FAO's Committee on Forestry (COFO) in Rome.

He called for 1.5 billion hectares of degraded land to be restored by planting more trees. This would help with the climate crisis, since wood is a renewable, carbon-neutral or even carbon absorbing material. Qu explained that increasing tree cover could also improve economic sustainability. Wild-harvested forest foods improve the food security and nutrition of local people, he added.

The FAO Director-General argued that the tools for sustainable forestry were available, and that it was time to implement and scale up known solutions.

Woodland covers 31% of the Earth's land surface, stores an estimated 296 gigatonnes of carbon and is home to the majority of the world's terrestrial biodiversity, the FAO stated in its press release.