Climate protection and reforestation

Rainforest and climate

Forest destruction causes 10-15 percent of all emissions.³ Rainforests in particular are vital to the Earth's ecosystem by sequestering CO2, acting as biodiversity hotspots, and driving the atmospheric water balance. Despite this, rainforests are being destroyed at an ever-increasing rate - for profit, poverty and often because the countries concerned lack the funds to protect them. That is why projects like Mein Regenwald are essential for a world fit for grandchildren. They are an investment in our future.

Plants and CO2

Whenever it is light, plants make energy from sunlight through photosynthesis and store it in their biomass in the form of CO2. Only at night and when they rot do plants release some of the CO2 they have absorbed from the atmosphere back into the atmosphere.

When a plant dies, some of the CO2 enters the soil through the work of microorganisms and is permanently stored there. The older a plant gets, the longer it can store the CO2 absorbed from the atmosphere in its biomass. Since hard woods decay much more slowly and hardwood trees often live to be very old because of their resistance to fungi and other hazards, old forests with many slow-growing hardwoods in particular store large amounts of CO2. These "old growth" forests are therefore very important for the climate, and at the same time they are probably the most species-rich terrestrial ecosystems in the world.

Tropical forests as CO2 sinks

Between 2001 and 2019, forests worldwide absorbed twice as much CO2 as they emitted - about 7.6 billion tons per year. Overall, forests sequester about 30 percent of the CO2 emitted worldwide. Tropical forests remove the most CO2 from the atmosphere per hectare of all forest types on earth. Alongside the soil, they are the most important CO2 sinks on land. This means that tropical forests in particular must be protected in order to save the climate.

But tropical forests in particular are in grave danger: Of the planet's three major tropical rainforest regions, the once vast forest areas of Southeast Asia have already been so decimated by massive deforestation that more CO2 is emitted here today than is absorbed. The African Congo Basin is currently the only rainforest area that is (still) a stable CO2 sink. The largest rainforest on earth is the Amazon region, which includes Mein Regenwald. Due to the accelerated destruction of the last years, Amazonia is about to change from a CO2 sink to a CO2 source. That's why the Amazon forests in particular need to be protected now.

Every dollar for the rainforest is worth 5.4 times as much

To mitigate climate change, technological innovation, such as in the energy transition, must go hand in hand with the protection of natural ecosystems as CO2 sinks. Unfortunately, the focus of public discourse, but also of providers of CO2 offsets, is too little on the protection of ecosystems, which, however, brings numerous other benefits in addition to CO2 absorption and is often more cost-efficient compared to other climate protection measures. A study by the Berlin-based Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change1 and the U.S. research organization Environmental Defense Fund, based on figures calculated using the DICE climate-economy model developed by U.S. Nobel laureate William Nordhaus, shows very clearly that the economic benefits of rainforest protection and restoration are immense, because every dollar spent on rainforest protection is worth as much in terms of its climate impact as $5.40 spent on technological climate protection. That is, the impact of rainforest protection is 5.4 times greater than that of other climate protection measures.

Save rainforest and change the world

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Mein Regenwald as a versatile instrument for climate protection

With Mein Regenwald, anyone can invest in particularly efficient climate protection and protect rainforest or restore damaged areas. Together with our partners, we do not want to wait until the international community agrees on a framework for rainforest protection. We have already been active since 2018, investing our partners' donations in impactful rainforest and climate protection. We protect the rainforest because that is the best climate protection and there is no more time to lose. Mein Regenwald is leading the way in rainforest protection, even without the political and institutional support that this most important climate action so urgently needs. For this, we need the support of as many partners as possible.

Protected areas and indigenous territories as climate protection

The creation of protected forest areas like Mein Regenwald is one of the most important ways to protect the rainforest's CO2 uptake. Globally, protected areas account for over 25 percent of net CO2 sinks2. Since government protected areas often take a long time to establish and countries then often lack the resources to protect them effectively, private protected areas like Mein Regenwald are an important building block for rainforest conservation.

Another efficient way to preserve the rainforest's CO2 absorption is through the protection and expansion of indigenous territories, as the indigenous peoples of Amazonia are usually more effective at protecting the rainforest as their home than their respective governments. The Mein Regenwald Project accompanies several indigenous communities in protecting their territories and their forests.

Synergies as a side effect of rainforest protection

In addition to climate protection, rainforest conservation also creates important co-benefits, as the protection of biodiversity, soil, major river systems and the general quality of life of the local population are also impossible without saving the rainforest.

The multitude of synergies that a project like Mein Regenwald automatically generates makes it one of the most urgent tasks facing humanity: Here, the most effective climate protection is combined with species conservation, sustainable economic development, and the strengthening of democracy and human rights to form a powerful bundle of measures, without which the achievement of the 2°C target and the implementation of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals is impossible.

Forest conservation or reforestation

The media often focuses on afforestation measures for climate change mitigation, and indeed afforestation is very important to restore some of the forest areas that have been destroyed. However, since huge amounts of CO2 are sequestered in above- and below-ground biomass in the remaining natural forests, the first thing to do is to protect old-growth forests - especially in the tropics. They store CO2 that they have removed from the atmosphere over centuries. If these forests are destroyed, this fossil CO2 enters the atmosphere and accelerates climate change. Even newly planted forests cannot remove this CO2 from the atmosphere fast enough. Only 5% of the CO2 absorbed is currently accounted for by forests that have been planted in recent years.

Mein Regenwald is an effective climate protection project because we combine the protection of old, natural forests that have survived until today with the reforestation of destroyed areas.

Reforestation and climate protection

Reforestation is an important tool in the fight against global warming. The atmosphere could be depleted of 23% more CO2 each year through natural forest regrowth and reforestation, without reducing food production or destroying natural grasslands.

Full or partial climate neutrality

The biggest problem with reforestation measures is securing the land on which new forests are to be created. This is because it must be ensured that the young trees are not destroyed again before they can remove CO2 from the atmosphere, i.e. they must be protected from slash-and-burn, grazing animals and conversion to agricultural land, for example. To ensure this, we work with indigenous communities, state nature reserves and private landowners who commit to protecting the newly created forest in the long term.

In addition, of course, reforestation should only take place where there was forest before. It does not make sense to plant trees in natural bogs or grasslands, for example, where they will destroy these species-rich, natural ecosystems.

The right kind of reforestation

Not all reforestation is the same. When species-rich primary forest is replaced by monocultures and tree plantations, for example, almost all animal and plant species disappear. Intensively used commercial forests have a relatively poor climate balance. The amount of CO2 absorbed then depends on factors such as harvesting cycles, amount of deforestation, type and age of trees, management practices, etc.

For the tropics in particular, data show that young forests can absorb much more CO2 than previously thought. However, this is only the case if trees are not planted in straight rows or monocultures by humans. Instead, new forests should be allowed to develop on their own, as species-rich and close to nature as possible. Young forests can then make a major contribution to climate protection.

The selection of suitable tree species is also particularly important. In the last 200 years, huge areas throughout the tropics and subtropics have been afforested with eucalyptus species, for example, which are originally native to the dry regions of Australia. They are destroying biodiversity, degrading soils and can dry out entire swaths of land.

In our reforestation program, we plant only native species. We obtain the seeds as close to the reforestation site as possible in order to guarantee a gene pool of trees that is appropriate to the site. We also ensure that the young forests can develop as species-rich, site-adapted, natural ecosystems and try to focus on species that can cope with climate changes in the coming years.

In addition to protecting existing forests, our reforestation program also contributes to effective nature and climate protection.

Source 1: https://www.mcc-berlin.net/news/meldungen/meldungen-detail/article/ein-dollar-fuer-den-regenwald-spart-5-dollar-40-fuer-sonstigen-klimaschutz.html
• Fuss, S., Golub, A., Lubowski, R., 2021, The economic value of tropical forests in meeting global climate stabilization goals, Global Sustainability
doi.org/10.1017/sus.2020.34
• Article by the author team on the MCC Common Economics Blog (English): https://blog.mcc-berlin.net/post/article/saving-and-restoring-tropical-forests-has-great-value.html

Source 2: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2686-x

Source 3: 10-15% of emissions from deforestation:
https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/climate-change/global-warming/global-co2-emissions/story

General source on forests, climate, soils
10.1146/annurev-resource-083110-115941

Region

The Mein Regenwald project is located in one of the most exciting regions of Peru. Here the Amazon meets the Andes, whose foothills were once covered by almost endless mountain forests. One of the last intact mountain rainforest areas in the region is today Mein Regenwald.

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Highly effective climate protection

Studies show that every euro invested in rainforest protection is equivalent in effect to 5.40 euros spent on conventional climate protection measures.1 In other words, nothing protects our climate more efficiently and cost-effectively than preserving the tropical rainforest.