Forests play an essential role in combating climate change by eliminating 30% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions produced by humans worldwide, the Mexican Civil Council for Sustainable Forestry (CCMSS) reported Monday. .
In a statement, the organization said that if efforts are made to boost its role as carbon sinks, these ecosystems could eliminate even higher amounts of CO2, a task that Mexico undertook during the past six years.
Those efforts consist of improving agricultural practices, moving towards agroecological production schemes, stopping deforestation and restoring degraded hectares, the Council said on Monday on the occasion of the World Day for the Reduction of CO2 Emissions.
However, the director of the CCMSS, Sergio Madrid, commented that “this represents a great challenge due to budget cuts in this sector” since the new president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, began his administration on December 1.
He added that “as long as Mexico continues to promote the model of agricultural production that uses modified seeds, large amounts of chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides to the detriment of agroecological production, efforts to mitigate emissions of polluting gases will be unsuccessful.”
According to Madrid, this model, in addition, “has led to countless violations of the rights of local communities and indigenous peoples.”
As an example, he cited the deforestation that took place in the southern states of Campeche and Chiapas to establish giant plantations of transgenic soy and African palm.
During the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), Mexico committed to reducing its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by around 210 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030.
For this, a zero deforestation rate is required, a commitment that, according to Madrid, “is far from being met”.
At global level something similar happens, because the reduction of emissions does not live its best moment.
According to Efe, the director of the UN Environment in Latin America and the Caribbean, Leo Heileman, the latest report from the institution points out that in 2017 the highest number of emissions was recorded since they began to register: 53.5 gigatons .
This figure, according to the expert, indicates that the relatively recent Paris Agreement (2016) to reduce emissions and stop the rise in global temperature has failed. (EFE)
