{"id":1616,"date":"2018-03-01T15:14:05","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T15:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalchangeecology.com\/?p=1616"},"modified":"2018-06-25T14:50:26","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T14:50:26","slug":"halting-deforestation-shortcomings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalchangeecology.com\/2018\/03\/01\/halting-deforestation-shortcomings\/","title":{"rendered":"Shortcomings of the UN Halting Deforestation conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Save the trees, stop deforestation and prevent climate change. These were some of the main goals of the cross-sectoral Halting Deforestation conference<\/a> organized by the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) with the participation of the International Forestry Student Association (IFSA) at the United Nations FAO headquarters in Rome, from February 19th to 22nd, 2018.<\/p>\n

Being the only participant from Armenia, I would like to share my experience as well as do my best in involving Armenians in the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15.2 Halting deforestation target.<\/p>\n

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Youth delegates, February 19th, 2018. Photo courtesy of IFSA<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To halt agriculture or not – that is the question<\/b><\/h2>\n

Since a lot has been said about the conference, I would rather concentrate on its \u201cgaps\u201d. One fundamental statement of the conference was \u201ci<\/i>ndustrial agriculture is the main driving force of deforestation\u201d. <\/i><\/p>\n

But first wait. Do we all know what really drives agriculture? Let\u2019s think about those developing countries whose economies mainly depend on agriculture. Would it be possible for a country that cannot even fill their people’s stomachs to start caring about the environment and the future of the planet? I don\u2019t really think so.<\/p>\n

Halting deforestation but promoting at the same time Zero Hunger (SDG goal 2.4) may therefore not align at first sight. The Halting Deforestation conference could have addressed this issue better by focusing on people\u2019s current needs rather than on future political agendas. Discussions left out of sight opportunities for agricultural sustainability that maintains ecosystems, strengthens climate change adaptation capacity and extreme weather resilience (droughts, floods, and other disasters) as well as progressive improvement of land and soil quality.<\/p>\n

Yes. 80% of deforestation is caused by agriculture,\u00a0 but for some countries agriculture is the only way to keep their economy running and to secure livelihoods.<\/p>\n

Other drivers of deforestation that weren\u2019t assessed<\/b><\/h2>\n

Even though the conference served its purpose by reviewing on-the-ground initiatives to combat deforestation, it didn\u2019t directly reduce the risk of nor provide immediate solutions to deforestation. Evidently, there were some drivers of deforestation left out of the discussion:<\/p>\n