COP19: (17/11/13) Andrew Mitchell the Executive Director of Global Canopy Programme talks about the deforestation of the Amazon and its key drivers.

He says that although deforestation in Brazil has increased this year, in context Brazil has done every well in reducing deforestation. Over the course of the last four years deforestation has fallen very sharply.

To understand deforestation we must look at its drivers and to do that Global Canopy has just published a book called ‘The little book of deforestation drivers’. Many of the products we use like leather, shampoo, soy and palm oil have adverse effects on the Amazon.

REDD is a mechanism that is there to reduce the emissions of deforestation but cannot do so until the drivers of it are tackled. To tackle the drivers of deforestation a greater understanding of supply chains is needed to ensure that we can create a system that deforestation free.
REDD has been moving faster he says than any other aspect of the negotiations but there is still a lot of progress that needs to happen. It is important that REDD is successful because deforestation, after fossil fuels, is the biggest contributor to carbon emissions.