Sustainable forest management

The UK-based International Institute for Environment and Development has issued a warning that tropical countries participating in REDD+ schemes, whereby they get compensated for protecting their forests to limit emissions of greenhouse gases from deforestation, could fail to reap social and environmental benefits.

Washington — The Congo Basin forest ecosystem is the world's second largest moist tropical forest, second only to the Amazon, and represents about one quarter of the globe's remaining closed canopy forest.

It is urgent to act internationally to protect forests, which are guardians of the climate, protect soils and biodiversity, and play a crucial role in the water cycle, according to participants in a conference on ‘European and global forests: Which way for the future?’.