19/11/2009 (The Casual Truth) - Humans have destroyed forests since the dawn of time. No big deal. However, this destruction has increased rapidly in recent times with the rising global demand for food, fuel, building materials, land and other commodities.

In fact, if deforestation continues at the current rate, all the rain forests in the world could be gone in 100 years.

Deforestation is a major contributor to climate change. Every year, destruction of the earth’s rainforests releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than all the world’s cars, planes and ships put together – about 20 percent of total emissions.

Trees help balance carbon dioxide levels on earth by absorbing it. Carbon dioxide is crucial to the planet’s survival - too much and the temperature heats up, while too little would lead to an ice age. Essentially, the whole eco-system depends on it.

However, climate change is now a commonly accepted threat, and destroying trees is a double-edged sword. Not only is less carbon dioxide being soaked up but more is also released back into the atmosphere as trees burn or rot.

A worldwide climate pact is on the agenda at a UN conference in Copenhagen next month and is likely to include plans to slow down deforestation.

As well as less carbon absorption, deforestation causes soil erosion, and less biodiversity, wildlife habitats and forest area for research.

Particularly concerning is the loss of tropical rain forest, such as Brazil’s Amazon basin, which hold about 80 percent of the earth’s animal and plant life.

So why not just halt deforestation? It would be a lot simpler than spending billions on wind and hydro power stations, not to mention ‘greener’ buildings and cars.

The answer is the money that would be lost by certain groups.

British environmentalist Norman Myers says 22 percent of deforestation is solely due to the growing number of palm oil plantations.

Palm oil is cheap to make, has high returns and can be used in a wide variety of food, cooking oil, soap and cleaning products. It is becoming so popular, British newspaper The Independent reported that it was likely to be in 43 of the country’s top 100 grocery brands.

The oil can also make bio diesel to fuel cars, ironically to decrease carbon emissions from petrol (though environmentalists have been campaigning against this for years).

New mills and refineries are being built on already degraded land but many companies opt to plant oil palms in rain forests instead because of additional timber profits from logging.

The Dutch first introduced oil palms to Indonesia in the 1840s and the country is now the top producer of palm oil in the world. It’s estimated to have the second highest deforestation rate after Brazil.

A 2007 Greenpeace report showed 74 million hectares of Indonesia's forests have been destroyed since 1957 – devastating plant and animal life along the way.

In Brazil, deforestation in the Amazon accounts for nearly 70 percent of its total carbon emissions.

Brazil’s government has now pledged to halve deforestation in the Amazon over the next decade in an effort to improve its moral image. But Friends of the Earth in Brazil says it is too little too late.

The main culprits are cattle farmers who undertake ‘slash and burn’ methods to create more farmland. The Brazilian government has increased policing of this illegal practice.

But try telling poor people like those in the Amazon of their responsibilities to climate change.

Farming, logging and palm oil plantations help provide employment and much needed income for developing countries. It makes economic sense to cut down the trees and farm the land.

Besides, many poor nations are reluctant to bear the cost of preserving the earth because they feel wealthier countries created the problem by destroying much of their own forests a long time ago, and were allowed free reign when they were developing.

Because of this and the shear difficulty of policing the vast Amazon, a scheme has been suggested (known as REDD) for wealthy countries to pay land owners not to cut down their trees.

However, it is still being worked on, not least of all because of the difficulty in defining a land-owner or whether they were going to cut the trees down in the first place.

It is not all bad news though. Forest regeneration is happening in many places across the world. Asia as a whole gained 1 million hectares of forest between 2000 and 2005.

China has planted millions of trees to stabilise the soil, prevent desertification, and, of course, absorb their growing carbon output.

Countries like the US, Japan, Germany, Italy, India and Brazil are using Google Earth’s satellite technology to monitor forest levels from space.

On paper, slowing or stopping deforestation is such a simple and effective way of decreasing carbon emissions. But a lot more effort is needed to start making it work.