Agree To End Deforestation By 2030, Global Leaders Prepare Rp270 Trillion Budget

Ilustrasi deforestasi. (Wikimedia Commons/IndoMet in the Heart of Borneo)

JAKARTA - More than 100 global leaders pledged late Monday to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by the end of the decade, backed by public and private funds worth US$19 billion or around Rp. 270,911,500,000,000 to invest in protecting and restoring forests. .

The joint statement at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow was endorsed by the leaders of countries including Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which collectively account for 85 percent of the world's forests.

The Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use will cover more than 13 million square miles of forest, according to a statement from the UK Prime Minister's Office on behalf of the leaders.

"We will have the opportunity to end the long history of mankind as conquerors of nature, and instead to be her guardians," said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, calling it an unprecedented deal.

A number of additional public and private initiatives were launched Tuesday to help achieve that goal, including billions of pledges for indigenous forest guards and sustainable agriculture.

Forests absorb about 30 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the non-profit World Resources Institute. Forests take emissions from the atmosphere and prevent them from changing climate.

Illustration of deforestation. (Wikimedia Commons/Hayden)

But these natural climate buffers are rapidly disappearing. The world lost 258,000 square kilometers of forest in 2020, according to WRI's deforestation tracking initiative, Global Forest Watch. It was an area larger than England.

Monday's agreement expands on similar commitments made by 40 countries as part of the 2014 New York Declaration on Forests, going further than ever before in marshalling resources to achieve that goal.

Under the agreement, 12 countries including the UK have pledged to provide 8.75 billion pounds (12 billion US dollars) of public funds between 2021 and 2025 to help developing countries, including in efforts to restore degraded land and tackle forest fires.

Meanwhile, at least a further 5.3 billion pounds will be provided by more than 30 private sector investors, including Aviva, Schroders and AXA.

The investors, who represent $8.7 trillion in assets under management, also pledged to stop investing in activities related to deforestation by 2025.

Five countries, including the UK and the US and a group of global charities on Tuesday also pledged to provide US$1.7 billion in financing, to support the conservation of indigenous peoples' forests and to strengthen their land rights.

Separately, environmentalists say indigenous peoples are the best protectors of the forest, often fighting violent encroachment from loggers and land grabbers.

More than 30 financial institutions with more than $8.7 trillion in assets under management also said they would do their 'best efforts' to eliminate deforestation linked to livestock, palm oil, soybean and pulp production by 2025.

To note, COP26 aims to maintain its target of limiting global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit), above pre-industrial levels. Scientists say forests and so-called nature-based solutions will be critical to achieving that goal.

Meanwhile, forests have removed about 760 million tonnes of carbon annually since 2011, offsetting about 8 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and cement, according to the Biomass Carbon Monitor project backed by data analysis firm Kayrros and a French research institute.

"Our biosphere is really helping save us for now, but there's no guarantee the process will continue," said Oliver Phillips, an ecologist at the University of Leeds in the UK.