Trees and forests are vital to fight climate change. CO2 absorption through photosynthesis helps us reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and therefore to be able to contribute so that the temperatures do not increase.
After the Climate Summit and the Paris Agreement, a limit on greenhouse gas emissions has been established in order to reduce the effects of climate change. Well, the Spanish forest mass, which occupies more than half of the country's surface, it is key to being able to fulfill these commitments.
The importance of the forest mass
Since the climate change targets were imposed, forests have become an essential element and have played a leading role in sustainability. They are a very useful tool in the fight against climate change as they are important carbon sinks.
Every year the great forests they set more than 24% of the total CO2 emissions produced in Spain. Hence the importance of increasing the wooded area and improving the quality of the existing one. A decrease in forests due to recurrent fires or a severe increase in temperatures would have a fatal impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, reducing and even nullifying the mitigating capacity of the forest masses. Therefore, taking good care of them is synonymous with good environmental management.
Objectives of the Paris Agreement
The objectives of the Paris Agreement that Spain ratified on November 30 reach a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 26% by 2030 of those sectors that are diffuse (such as transport, agriculture, waste or buildings) and 43% of those emissions corresponding to the industrial sector. Emissions must be reduced with respect to the polluting levels that existed in 2005.
In order to achieve the objectives imposed by the Paris Agreement, trees play a very important role as a carbon sink. Thanks to them, we are able to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. However, due to lack of management or income, forests are abandoned every day and they are not adequately cared for to prevent forest fires, promote ecological balance and help conserve biodiversity. We have to remember that a mountain is sustainable thanks to its environmental, social and economic management.
Forest conservation
According to the Spanish Association for Forest Sustainability (PEFC), trees can improve the life of cities, since their strategic placement It is capable of cooling the air between 2 and 8 degrees centigrade. In addition, forests provide wood that gives us a greater amount of energy than the sun, water or wind does, constituting 40% of the current renewable energy supply in the world.
According to the environmental organization WWF, two thirds of the planet's forests have now been lost in the last 10.000 years. This trend persists due to illegal logging and its transformation for intensive agriculture. The environmental organization recommends making a good inventory of forest resources, their biodiversity and their social implications so that actions in the forest do not put their future at risk, "taking into account the environmental, social and economic dimensions."
However, the panorama in Spain is another story. Here there is no profitable forest managementSince there is no market for the products that are extracted from the forest, it is very marginal or has very low prices.
Also, WWF considers as fundamental the creation of advisory bodies and the equitable public participation of all agents interested in forests from an environmental, social and economic perspective.
As you can see, the fight against climate change has a great ally of which, even in Spain, not much is taken into account.