The role of habitat
 Pedro Develey
Tropical forests are important carbon sinks and yet we continue to cut them down
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Ecosystems such as tropical forest, peatlands, wetlands and oceans especially play an especially large role in climate regulation.
Conserving existing ecosystems enables them to continue to function as carbon sinks, while environmentally-appropriate afforestation and reforestation, increases the carbon being sequestered from the atmosphere. Many of these sinks already face considerable threats.
Land use change is a major driver of biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions. The world’s forests are disappearing at the rate of one football pitch per second. In climate terms, tropical deforestation accounts for about 20% of all human-induced emissions every year, roughly the same volume of greenhouse gas emissions as produced by the USA or China. In biodiversity terms tropical forests are the most ecologically rich of all forest types, home to 70% of the world’s vascular plants, 30% of all bird species and 90% of invertebrates. Over 3,000 Important Bird Areas are forested and 76% of Globally Threatened Birds are dependent on forests. Tropical forests provide huge benefits to local communities who depend on them for the ecosystem services they provide.
Current proposals to reduce emissions from deforestation in developing countries should help to maintain carbon stocks and would enable developing countries to benefit financially from protecting their forests
For more information on reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries click here
Although peatlands only cover 3% of the global land surface they hold huge carbon stocks, equivalent to around 100 years of fossil fuel emissions. The majority of the world’s tropical peatlands are in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, and were almost entirely covered with peat swamp forests. Mainly within the past 20 years over 12 million hectares (45%) of these peat swamp forests have been systematically drained, clear-felled and converted into plantations, initially rubber and now oil palm and acacia. The conversion rate and extent is phenomenal, especially in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sarawak. This process transforms a stable carbon stock into a major source of emissions.
Unsustainable intensive agriculture practices are also a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions. The application of nitrogen fertilizer causes the emission of nitrous oxide (N2O), one of the most potent greenhouse gases. Cattle and other livestock raising, particularly in intensive farms, causes very significant emissions of methane (CH4), another key greenhouse gas. The ploughing of permanent grassland and intensive management of arable land causes the loss of soil carbon contributing to CO2 emissions. As an example, it is estimated that 9% of the European Union (25 Member states) greenhouse gas emissions are from agriculture (compared with 21% from the transport sector). All of these emissions can be reduced through more sustainable agricultural practices, which also usually benefit biodiversity and the wider environment.