COP18: Biodiversity must be considered for reforestation projects

COP18: Biodiversity must be considered for reforestation projects

COP18 (04/12/12) – Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt, Senior Scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre talks about the importance of protecting biodiversity in East Asia.

While he agrees that many countries look to increase their forest cover, often a highly lauded activity, if you look closer, sometimes they are not as good as they first appear.

He uses China as an example, where forest cover has rapidly grown in recent years. However, he says much of what is considered as forest cover has limited function and is poor in terms of biodiversity and other ecosystem functions.

He says this must be counteracted to maintain biodiversity and wants to see parties encourage policies for farmers and governments that do not only look at one type of forest or one type of land use.