LatAm Announces Plans to Fight Climate Change Marcelo Teixeira - Reuters
go to original December 8, 2014

A worker plants seedlings at Huayquecha Biological Station near Paucartambo. Locals farming in areas of the Peruvian rainforest burn fields to improve soil quality, which creates carbon dioxide emissions. The seedlings – part of a reforestation initiative promoted by the Amazon Conservation Association – will mature into trees to fight global warming. (Enrique Castro-Mendivil)

Eight Latin American countries have announced an initiative to restore 20 million hectares of degraded forest and farmland, seeking to use this land to store carbon in natural vegetation and cut emissions that cause global warming.

Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru and two regional conservationist programs joined the 20x20 Initiative that aims to have all the planned work in this huge area well under way by 2020.

The program will start with funding of $US365 million from private investors, including Althelia Climate Fund, Moringa Fund, Permian Global, Terra Bella and Rare.

Greenhouse gas emissions from land use changes, such as deforestation, account for 15 per cent of global emissions, or more than what is generated by the world's transport sector. So, programs to avoid destruction of forests help to reduce the amount of heat-trapping gases.

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