Dear friends,
March 21st, the International Day of Forests, is around the corner! As you may recall, on that day we will be sending a letter to the FAO demanding again that it changes its forest definition which allows an industrial tree monoculture to be considered a forest.
Since the UN Paris Agreement has entered into force, a new door has been opened to a further expansion of monoculture tree plantations. This is done through different means, ranging from promoting tree plantations as so-called carbon sinks to dubious reforestation or restoration programmes and the promotion of wood as an energy source to replace fossil fuels. One of the underlying reasons of such promotion is that the Paris Agreement –and most of the countries that have ratified it- adopts FAO´s forest definition.
Industrial tree plantations create huge problems to local communities and are no solution to the climate crisis! It is urgent that the FAO changes its forest definition that allows plantations to be mislabeled as forests.
If your organization hasn’t signed yet, we invite you to support the letter by sending the name of your organization and country to fao2017@wrm.org.uy.
If you don’t remember if you have already sent the endorsement, you can check here
Thanks in advance!