Stopping deforestation
June 24, 2014
Project goal: developing a regional method to measure how much carbon is stored by forests. In addition, avoiding deforestation as a way to provide new opportunities for forests and residents. The project focuses on the Miombo woodlands as well as other forests in southern Africa
Size: Forest inventory of three test areas in the four pilot countries of Zambia, Malawi, Botswana and Mozambique
Funding: around 3.3 million euros within the framework of the International Climate Initiative (IKI)
Biological diversity: The Brachystegia boehmii and Brachystegia longifolia are trees native to central and southern Africa and are predominantly found in the Miombo woodlands
Africa’s Miombo forest, the world’s largest dry woodlands, is shrinking and along with it, its vast biodiversity. Currently, Zambia has the world’s second highest rate of deforestation. Rising demand for firewood and new farmland and years of monoculture planting has destroyed existing agricultural land and harvests. In a bid to stop that, industrialized nations such as Germany are using the United Nations’ “REDD+” mechanism that is meant to provide funds for developing nations if they can prove that they are preserving their forests. That’s why teams of rangers and botanists are currently measuring the height and width of trees and calculating the forest’s carbon-storing capacities and documenting biodiversity. In addition, they’re helping people in the region earn alternative means of income such as beekeeping - an activity that doesn’t involve chopping down trees.
A film by Florian Nusch