INTRODUCTION.

This pamphlet highlights a rather astonishing fact about the green movement. Although the general public regards greens as being almost synonymous with 'Tree lovers'/'Tree huggers' and, even though most greens themselves love Trees and Forests (even its enemies such as the wise use groups in the united states depict greens as 'faggots in the Forest' [1] ), the country's leading environmental organizations do not give top priority to Reforestation as a means of combatting global warming. This is partly due to the fact that they do not emphasize the importance of Forests in the Earth's life-support system and thus the vital role that Forests play in regulating the climate. Whilst there are a couple of smaller green organizations which regard Reforestation as their top priority they do so without indicating the global scale of the Reforestation needed nor the countries in which these Forest should be created.

What, then, is going on amongst the country's leading green organizations especially given the popular appeal of Reforestation? Why are they forsaking the most appropriate ecological remedy to global warming? There are a number of inter-linked reasons.

Firstly, they have capitulated to the interests of the global establishment. They, and the global environmental establishment of which they are a part, oppose economic growth and free trade (as exemplified by the recent gatt agreement that will lead, over the course of time, to the abolition of all environmental laws and regulations [2] ) but support green growth [3] /green free trade [4] (thereby making environmental laws and regulations unnecessary).

Secondly, they have also capitulated to the lifestyles of the global establishment. Saving the environment has become a meal-ticket of rather lavish proportions, "It has been said that UNCED was a failure. But what we do not hear as often is that UNCED was also a massive manifestation of the present structural weaknesses of the environmental movement. We should have forced them (the governments at UNCED) to do something (by organizing global demos). But we - the board members, leading activists and paid workers of the major environmental and development NGOs - did not try to do anything like this. We were busy drafting our NGO lobby documents and running from one international meeting to another. Tens of millions of dollars were used in travel expenditures of the elite of environmental activists." (Risto Isomaki Climate Alliance News Summer 1993 p.10). The jet-setting, car owning, lifestyles of these leading environmentalists (possibly living in double income households) are unsustainable and yet they are trying to convince the public of the need to adopt sustainable ways of living.

Thirdly, this country's leading environmental organizations are so desperate to escape the ecological problems caused by fossil fuels they support solar power without having carried out a proper evaluation of the ecological damage which could be caused by this so-called environmentally friendly form of energy. Unfortunately, the creation of solar economies has the potential to cause even more ecological damage than fossil fuelled economies. As a consequence of the importance attached to solar economies, the leading green organizations have no interest in the creation of Wood economies; they do not believe Forests play a vital role in a sustainable Planet; and, finally, they have no conception as to the political role of Reforestation in bringing about global ecological justice between the over-industrialized world and the third world.

It is difficult to say which came first - whether the belief in solar powered economies made them realize that continued economic growth was possible and that they didn't have to change their lifestyles or, whether their capitulation to the world's biggest earth rapists led them to realize the importance of solar economies. This work is not concerned about highlighting the ecological benefits of a wood economy over a solar powered economy [5] . It concentrates upon exploring the environmental movement's opposition to Reforestation as a means of combating global warming. It is hoped that exposing the weaknesses of the arguments against Reforestation will encourage the green movement to reassess its proposals for combating the threat posed by global warming.

This chapter takes a cursory look at the current condition of the world's Forests. It does not seek to present a comprehensive investigation into the state of each country's Forests. All that is attempted is to give an impression of the ecological calamity which is currently taking place at increasing speed around the world.

ONE: THE SCALE OF GLOBAL DEFORESTATION.

i) The Scale of the Earth's Forest Cover.

I: The Global Scale of Forest Cover Before the Rise of Agriculture.

After the retreat of the last ice age some 10,000 years ago, the world was gradually covered in Forests. Some regions which are now deserts, like the Sahara, were once luxurious Forests teeming with a wide array of Wildlife, "Before the dawn of agriculture, some 10,000 years ago, the earth boasted a rich mantle of forest and open woodland covering 6.2 billion hectares." (Sandra Postel and Lori Heise 'Reforest the Earth' Worldwatch paper no.83 April 1988 p.5); "Before humans invented agriculture there were 6 billion hectares of forest on Earth." (D H Meadows, D L Meadows & J Randers 'Beyond the Limits. Global Collapse or a Sustainable Future' Earthscan, London 1992 p.57).

II: The Historical Scale of Forest Cover.

A: Europe.

"By 1200 Europeans had cut and ploughed their way across the continent with such thoroughness that they threatened to create a treeless desert. With a few great exceptions, Europe's great forests date from the late Middle Ages." (Andrew Nikiforuk 'The Fourth Horseman. A Short History of Epidemics, Plagues and Other Scourges' Fourth Estate, London 1991 p.53); "One thousand years ago, 80% of central Europe was forested." (Fred Pearce 'Turning Up the Heat p.74); "Forests originally covered about 95% of western and central europe. By the end of the great period of medieval colonization this had been reduced to about 20%." (Clive Ponting 'A Green History of the World' Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd 1991 p.121).

B: North Africa.

.. "the original forests that once stretched from Morocco to Afghanistan even as late as 2000 BC ..." (Clive Ponting 'A Green History of the World' Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd 1991 p.76).

C: China.

"In China .. it is estimated that natural forests originally covered three quarters of the land." (Clive Ponting 'A Green History of the World' Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd 1991 p.255).

D: Costa Rica.

"Costa Rica was once almost completely cloaked in tropical forest." (Alan P Durning 'Ending Poverty' in 'State of the World 1990' A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Towards a Sustainable Planet' Unwin Paperbacks, London 1990 p.146).

E: Pakistan.

"What is now the Thar desert in Rajasthan and the Punjab, an area extending over about 100,000 square miles, was still an impenetrable jungle 2,000 years ago." (Clive Ponting 'A Green History of the World' Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd 1991 p.255).

F: The United States of America.

"In 1790 .. forests covered about one million miles of the United States." (Clive Ponting 'A Green History of the World' Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd 1991 p.256).

G: Tropical Rainforest.

"Two thousand years ago, the tropical rainforest alone extended over 5 billion acres, covering 12% of the earth's land surface." (Jeremy Rifkin 'Biosphere Politics. A New Consciousness for a New Century' Harper San Francisco 1991 p.73).

III: The Current Scale of Forest Cover.

"One third of the Earth's total land surface is covered by forests, of which 45% or two billion hectares are tropical." (Worldwide Fund for Nature Special Report no.6 May 1991 p.10).

A: The World's Major Forests.

"Recent FAO data indicate that seventeen countries account for about 75% of the global forest cover, and, of those seventeen, five countries, namely Russia, Brazil, Canada, the US, and Zaire, account for nearly 55%." (Jagmohan S Maini & Ola Ullsten 'Conservation and Sustainable Development of Forests Globally: Issues and Opportunities' in Kilaparti Ramakrishna & George M Woodwell (eds) 'World Forests for the Future: Their Use and Conservation' Yale University Press New Haven 1993 p.112).

B: Tropical Forests.

a) Latin America.

"Latin America possesses 57% of the world's tropical forests." (Worldwide Fund for Nature Special Report no.6 May 1991 p.11).

ii) Deforestation.

The Planet is being increasingly scalped of its Tree cover. All over the world, deforestation is being carried out at a frightening rate which will have a huge impact on the global climate.

I: Deforestation Per Country.

Australia.

"Since the first settlements in Australia at the end of the 18thC about half of the original forests have been destroyed." (Clive Ponting 'A Green History of the World' Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd 1991 p.256).

Brazil.

"The Brazilian Carajas project [is] one of the greatest man-made ecological disasters this century. All the evidence shows that an area of Amazonian rainforest larger than Europe has been deforested or flooded in the last 10 years partly to provide EC industry - including British Steel - with cheap ore." (Jackie Williams Guardian 6.12.91. p.30).

China.

"In China .. it is estimated that natural forests originally covered three quarters of the land. By the early 20thC forests were restricted to the inaccessible and mountainous areas and now cover not much more than 5% of the country - about 50 million acres were deforested between 1950 and 1980." (Clive Ponting 'A Green History of the World' Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd 1991 p.255); "China has lost 3/4 of its forest." (D H Meadows, D L Meadows & J Randers 'Beyond the Limits. Global Collapse or a Sustainable Future' Earthscan, London 1992 p.57).

Colombia.

"In Colombia 350,000 hectares of forest are felled every year." (Worldwide Fund for Nature Special Report no.6 May 1991 p.11).

Costa Rica.

"Costa Rica was once almost completely cloaked in tropical forest. By 1983, after two decades of explosive growth in the cattle industry, pastures covered roughly half the nation's arable land." (Alan P Durning 'Ending Poverty' in 'State of the World 1990' A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Towards a Sustainable Planet' Unwin Paperbacks, London 1990 p.146); "At current rates of destruction, Costa Rica's commercially productive forests will disappear over the next decade." (Worldwide Fund for Nature Special Report no.6 May 1991 p.11).

Dominican Republic.

"In the Dominican Republic, only 10% of the original forest remains." (Worldwide Fund for Nature Special Report no.6 May 1991 p.11).

Ecuador.

"In Ecuador 350,000 hectares of forest are felled every year." (Worldwide Fund for Nature Special Report no.6 May 1991 p.11).

El Salvador.

There has been an ecological calamity in El Salvador because of the civil war, "For a country that depends on firewood for 60% of all its energy needs, the deforestation of the country is a crisis far more profound than the carnage of the civil war. From the coastal mangrove swamps to the heights of the mountain cloud forests, virtually every vestige of El Salvador's original ecology has been destroyed. The guerillas take refuge under forest cover so the military has tried to crush them by burning the forests down with phosphorus incendiary bombs and napalm." (Paul Simons New Scientist 2.2.91. p.72).

Ethiopia.

"One hundred years ago in Ethiopia, 40% of the land could be classified as wooded; today only 3% can be designated that way." (David O Kemp 'Global Environmental Issues. A Climatological Approach' Routledge, London 1990 p.59).

Ghana.

"Ghana's forests consist almost only of forest reserves that have been so severely depleted of commercial species as not to be able to attract large foreign investors." (Worldwide Fund for Nature Special Report no.6 May 1991 p.7); "The Forest Department of Ghana believes that in that country, where 80% of the forests have disappeared, only 15% of them were harvested before the land was cleared." (Robert Repetto 'Government Policy, Economics and the Forest Sector' in Kilaparti Ramakrishna & George M Woodwell (eds) 'World Forests for the Future: Their Use and Conservation' Yale University Press New Haven 1993 p.102).

Haiti.

"On Haiti .. less than 10% of the original forests remains." (Clive Ponting 'A Green History of the World' Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd 1991 p.255).

India.

"India's forests have decreased by 50% since independence." (Sandy Irvine and Alec Ponton 'A Green Manifesto. Policies for a Green Future' Optimas 1988 p.124); "By the end of the century India .. could be treeless." (Stewart Boyle and John Ardill 'The Greenhouse Effect. A Prsactical Guide to the World's Changing Climate' Stodder & Houghton 1988 p.2); "Official figures show huge forests emerging while the earth remains barren and degraded." (Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain 'Towards Green Vilages. A Strategy for Environmentally Sound and Participatory Rural Development' Centre for Science and Environment 1989 p.14).

Indonesia.

"Indonesia contains the most rainforest after Brazil and World bank officials estimate that the country is destroying about 2.4 million acres of forest a year." (Jake Jagoff 'Tropical Imports' Earth First! Journal 2.11.92 p.6); "Asia's worst fires have engulfed more than 250,000 acres of tropical rain forest in Indonesia. 74% of the 360 million acres of Indonesia's sprawling archipeligo are covered by rain forests. The fires appear to have begun in intensively logged places which are strewn with highly inflamable debris." (Guardian 21.10.91. p.9).

Ivory Coast.

"The Ivory Coast, where forest cover has Decreased by 76% since 1960." (Robert Repetto 'Government Policy, Economics and the Forest Sector' in Kilaparti Ramakrishna & George M Woodwell (eds) 'World Forests for the Future: Their Use and Conservation' Yale University Press New Haven 1993 p.101).

Malaysia.

a) Sarawak.

"At current rates of logging the whole of Sarawak will be denuded by 1997." (Guardian 27.11.91. p.12).

Nepal.

"Nepal has lost perhaps half of its forests during the last 20 years." (Alan B Durning & Holly B Brough 'Taking Stock: Animal Farming and the Environment' Worldwatch Paper no. 103. Worldwatch Institute 1991. p.25).

Nigeria.

"In Nigeria, forest reserves .. are practically the only forests left in the country today. .. deforestation continues at the rate of 350-400 square miles a year and mainly affects forest reserves." (Worldwide Fund for Nature Special Report no.6 May 1991 p.6).

Pakistan.

"What is now the Thar desert in Rajasthan and the Punjab, an area extending over about 100,000 square miles, was still an impenetrable jungle 2,000 years ago." (Clive Ponting 'A Green History of the World' Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd 1991 p.255).

Peru.

"In Peru 300,000 hectares of forest are felled every year." (Worldwide Fund for Nature Special Report no.6 May 1991 p.11); "American Drug enforcement agencies are spraying 50,000 acres of Peru with biocides to stop the drugs trade." (Guardian 13.5.91. p.6).

Philippines

The Philippines rainforest has been reduced from 5 million hectares in 1970 to just 60,000 hectares today.

Nepal.

"Nepal has lost perhaps half of its forests during the last 20 years." (Alan B Durning & Holly B Brough 'Taking Stock: Animal Farming and the Environment' Worldwatch Paper no. 103. Worldwatch Institute 1991. p.25).

New Zealand.

"When New Zealand officially became part of the British empire in 1840, over half the country was forested. By the 1980s half the country's virgin natural forests had been destroyed." (Clive Ponting 'A Green History of the World' Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd 1991 p.256).

United States of America.

"In 1790 .. forests covered about one million miles of the United States. By 1990 about 6% was left." (Clive Ponting 'A Green History of the World' Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd 1991 p.256); "More than one million acres a year are being brutally clearcut." (Karen Pickett 'Forest Service Lies' Earth First Journal 2.2.92 p.15); "The United States has lost 1/3 of its forest cover and 85% of its primary forest." (D H Meadows, D L Meadows & J Randers 'Beyond the Limits. Global Collapse or a Sustainable Future' Earthscan, London 1992 p.57).

Vietnam.

"American forces and their allies dropped more than 12 million gallons of Agent Orange during the Vietnam war in a bid to deny communist forest sanctuary and food. Their aircraft systematically sprayed more than 6,500 square miles of south and central Vietnam." (Guardian 17.8.90); "The Vietnamese are razing 200,000 hectares of tropical forest each year for export to Thailand and Japan." (New Scientist 14.9.91. p.40).

Zimbabwe.

"Some 80,000 hectares of Zimbabwean land was deforested annually during the eighties and that trend is expected to continue. In Nigeria 400,000 hectares a year were deforested in the 1980s and in Zaire 347,000 hectares per year." (Andrew Meldrum 'Earth' Guardian Extra May 1992 p.34).

II: Regional Deforestation.

A: The Destruction of Tropical Rainforests.

1. The Past.

"45% of the world's rainforests have been destroyed in the last 30 years." (Jonathon Porritt 'Where on Earth are we Going?' BBC Books, London 1990 p.13); "In 1950, 30% of the earth's landmass was covered with tropical forest. By 1975 this figure was only 12%. In 1988 only 6% was left." ('Tropical Forests' Ecoropa); "Two thousand years ago, the tropical rainforest alone extended over 5 billion acres, covering 12% of the earth's land surface. In less than one hundred years over half the forest has now been cut and burned, leaving whole areas of the earth bare and unprotected, rendering entire regions lifeless." (Jeremy Rifkin 'Biosphere Politics. A New Consciousness for a New Century' Harper San Francisco 1991 p.73); "In the tropics half the original forest cover is gone. Half of what remains has been logged and degraded." (D H Meadows, D L Meadows & J Randers 'Beyond the Limits. Global Collapse or a Sustainable Future' Earthscan, London 1992 p.58).

2. The Present.

"Our annual toll of tropical forests nearly doubled between 1979 and 1989 ..." (James Lovelock 'Gaia. The Practical Science of Planetary Medicine' Gaia Books Ltd London 1991. p.157); "It is the tropical forests of South America, west Africa and south-east Asia that have borne the brunt of (forest) destruction - overall since 1950 about half of the world's tropical forests have been destroyed and three-quarters of that clearance has been to provide land for agriculture. By the 1980s the best estimates suggest that 28 million acres a year were being cleared. Nearly all the ranches established in the Amazon area before 1978 had been abandoned by the mid-1980s." (Clive Ponting 'A Green History of the World' Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd 1991 p.257).

3. The Future.

"The rate of destruction of tropical forests means that by the end of the century and given current trends, nearly all forests will be gone in India, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Madagascar, East Africa, West Africa, and central America, and virtually all primary forest will be eliminated in Burma and Ecuador." (Norman Myers 'Deforestation Rates in the Tropical Forests and their Climatic Implications' Friends of the Earth 1989).

B: The New World.

"The United States, Canada, and Australia have devastated their ancient forests to a far greater extent than than have most tropical nations their rain forests." (Dave Foreman 'Confessions' p.160).

C: Industrializing Countries.

Forests and Woodlands in developing countries shrank by 125 million hectares in the 15 years up to 1986, according to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organisation. (New Scientist 19.5.90).

D: West Africa.

Aside from highly depleted Forest reserves, "there will soon be no significant forested areas left in West Africa (Nigeria, Liberia, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire)." (Worldwide Fund for Nature Special Report no.6 May 1991 p.6).

E: Latin America.

"It seems much of Latin America is locked in a race to see who is first to convert their country into a dry, infertile wasteland." (Worldwide Fund for Nature Special Report no.6 May 1991 p.11); "Since 1970, farmers and ranchers have converted more than 20 million hectares of Latin America's most tropical forests to cattle pasture." (Alan B Durning & Holly B Brough 'Taking Stock: Animal Farming and the Environment' Worldwatch Paper no. 103. Worldwatch Institute 1991. p.25).

F: The Amazon.

"In twenty years Amazonia may be as bereft of trees as Haiti." (Stewart Boyle and John Ardill 'The Greenhouse Effect. A Practical Guide to the World's Changing Climate' Stodder & Houghton 1988 p.2).

G: Central Europe.

"One thousand years ago, 80% of central Europe was forested. Today 20%." (Fred Pearce 'Turning Up the Heat p.74).

H: North Africa.

"It is now estimated that no more than 10% of the original forests that once stretched from Morocco to Afghanistan even as late as 2000BC still exist." (Clive Ponting 'A Green History of the World' Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd 1991 p.76).

I: Himalayas.

"In the Himalayas about 40% of the forests were destroyed in the thirty years after 1955 to provide fuel and increase the amount of agricultural land." (Clive Ponting 'A Green History of the World' Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd 1991 p.262).

J: Temperate Forests.

.. "the deforestation of temperate lands .. was largely achieved by the end of the 18thC and must have contributed substantially to the addition of CO2 to the atmosphere." (Worldwide Fund for Nature Special Report no.6 May 1991 p.3).

III: Global Deforestation.

A: The Historical Scale of Deforestation.

The scale of global deforestation which has taken place since the end of the last ice age is nothing less than frightening, "Over the last 10,000 years, the earth's mantle of forests and woodland has shrunk by a third as trees were cleared to make way for crops, pasture and cities." (Sandra Postel and John C Ryan 'Reforming Forestry' in Lester Brown, ed 'State of the World 1991. A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society' Earthscan Publications Ltd, London. 1991. p.74); "During the past ten thousand years, global forest cover has been reduced by about one third, from an estimated 6.3 x 10⁹ ha to about 4.2 x 10⁹ ha. A considerable proportion of the historic deforestation has taken place in the temperate and boreal regions to meet the needs of an expanding population." (Jagmohan S Maini & Ola Ullsten 'Conservation and Sustainable Development of Forests Globally: Issues and Opportunities' in Kilaparti Ramakrishna & George M Woodwell (eds) 'World Forests for the Future: Their Use and Conservation' Yale University Press New Haven 1993 p.112); "Before humans invented agriculture there were 6 billion hectares of forest on Earth. Now there are 4 billion (hectares of forest on Earth), only 1.5 billion of which are undisturbed primary forest. Half of that forest loss has occurred between 1950 and 1990." (D H Meadows, D L Meadows & J Randers 'Beyond the Limits. Global Collapse or a Sustainable Future' Earthscan, London 1992 p.57).

B: The Current Scale of Deforestation.

The situation now is that, "One third of the Earth's total land surface is covered by forests, of which 45% or two billion hectares are tropical." (Worldwide Fund for Nature Special Report no.6 May 1991 p.10). But this scale of Forest cover is unlikely to survive for much longer given that the current scale of global deforestation, "The planet's mantle of trees, already a third less than in pre-agricultural times and shrinking by more than 11 million hectares per year." (Alan P Durning 'Ending Poverty' in 'State of the World 1990' A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Towards a Sustainable Planet' Unwin Paperbacks, London 1990 p.187); "The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization claims that forests are disappearing at the rate of 43 million acres a year." (G 17.8.90 p.7); "The rate of global deforestation has increased by 90% over the last decade." (Aubrey Meyer Econews no.54 Dec1990/Jan 1991 p.9).

D: The Future Scale of Deforestation.

For the first time in history, it is possible to envisage the eradication of the aboreal Forests of Canada and Alaska as well as the world's tropical Rainforests, "The rate of destruction of tropical forests means that by the end of the century and given current trends, nearly all forests will be gone in India, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Madagascar, East Africa, West Africa, and central America, and virtually all primary forest will be eliminated in Burma and Ecuador." (Norman Myers 'Deforestation Rates in the Tropical Forests and their Climatic Implications' Friends of the Earth 1989); "All the world's forests could be destroyed within 60 years according to Professor Peter Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St Louis." (Daily Telegraph 1991).

As a consequence of this wholesale deforestation, it has been postulated that the Earth is one continent short of the Forests needed to maintain climatic stability, "Dysen and Marland have calculated that .. to absorb the 20,000 million tons of CO2 currently emitted every year into the atmosphere, an area of 7 million square kilometres (roughly the size of Australia) would have to be planted."

iii) Reforestation.

It is not all gloom and doom. There is one country in which there has been a considerable degree of reforestation.

I: Reforestation Per Country.

A: The United States of Soviet Russia.

The Soviet Union is the only country in the world where there has been an increase in Forests since the second world war, "The Soviet Union has 2 million square kilometres more land under forests than in 1960." (Fred Pearce 'Turning Up the Heat p.117); According to Roger Sedjo of the 'Resources for the Future', "Forest cover in the former Soviet Union has risen by more than 70 million hectares in 25 years." (Fred Pearce New Scientist 11.7.92).

Having looked at the scale of global deforestation, the first section of the following chapter explores the international efforts made to protect the world's Forests. It might have been thought that the current scale of global deforestation is so serious that considerable efforts would have been made by the international community to prevent it from getting worse. The following section outlines the geophysiological importance of Reforestation and suggests that the priority for combatting global warming is for countries to balance their historical Carbon budgets.

TWO: REFORESTING THE EARTH.

i) Saving the World's Forests.

I: No Treaties on Forests.

There are no international treaties to preserve the world's Forests. Since the 1920s various treaties have been signed which are related to Forests but .. "the principal purposes of entering into them were not conservation and the management of forest resources." (Kilaparti Ramakrishna 'The Need for an International Commission on the Conservation and Use of World Forests' in Kilaparti Ramakrishna & George M Woodwell (eds) 'World Forests for the Future: Their Use and Conservation' Yale University Press New Haven 1993 p.126). It has been concluded that, "forests have rarely been the sole subject of international treaties. Ramakrishna, after a careful review of international agreements, points out that with the exception of the International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA), forest conservation and utilization have not generated any international legal negotiations." (Kilaparti Ramakrishna & George M Woodwell (eds) 'World Forests for the Future: Their Use and Conservation' Yale University Press New Haven 1993 p.xv).

II: The Food and Agriculture Organization, (FAO).

The main global institution with responsibility for the world's Forests is the fao, "The Food and Agriculture Organization, established 1945, has the primary mandate in forestry matters." (Kilaparti Ramakrishna 'The Need for an International Commission on the Conservation and Use of World Forests' in Kilaparti Ramakrishna & George M Woodwell (eds) 'World Forests for the Future: Their Use and Conservation' Yale University Press New Haven 1993 p.).

III: The World Forestry Congress.

The global timber industry is represented by the world forestry congress. It insists that one of its main roles is Forest conservation - after all, any lumberjack can appreciate that if all the trees are cut down then there won't be a timber industry. Yet just like its counterpart, the international whaling commission, the decimation of Forests around the world is testimony to its real interests - to make as much profit as quickly as possible. According to one commentator, however, the world forestry congress has recently adopted a more enlightened view, "The World Forestry Congress has traditionally been a forum for promoting the timber industry's interests. The Tenth World Forestry Congress, however, held in Paris in September 1991 .. chose as its theme "Forest: A Heritage for the Future." Its final declaration hoped to establish .. recommendations for national forest policies." (Kilaparti Ramakrishna 'The Need for an International Commission on the Conservation and Use of World Forests' in Kilaparti Ramakrishna & George M Woodwell (eds) 'World Forests for the Future: Their Use and Conservation' Yale University Press New Haven 1993 p.127).

IV: Tropical Forestry Action Plan (TFAP).

At present there is only one treaty designed to protect Forests. Not surprisingly, this concerns only tropical Rainforests not the world's Forests, "The only international agreement to date that specifically provides for a framework governing a certain type of forest, even though principally for the purposes of cooperation and consultation between contracting parties, is the International Tropical Timber Agreement adopted in 1983, which entered into force in 1985. 48 countries have joined so far as parties. The .. International Tropical Timber Organization .. administers the provisions of the treaty and supervises its operation. The Tropical Forestry Action Plan (TFAP) was launched in 1985 by the World Bank, the UNDP, FAO and the World Resources Institute as an emergency response to the tropical forest crisis. It calls for a massive increase in development assistance to the forestry sector. The level of development assistance from the member countries has increased to $1 billion, up from $500 million per year before the adoption of the plan." (Kilaparti Ramakrishna 'The Need for an International Commission on the Conservation and Use of World Forests' in Kilaparti Ramakrishna & George M Woodwell (eds) 'World Forests for the Future: Their Use and Conservation' Yale University Press New Haven 1993 p.126).

As will be seen later, the tfap has been a disaster for the tropical Forests. Then again, its objective was never to save the Forests but to maximize their exploitation. At present the forestry industry, just like the fishing industry, is not even acting in its own self interests to ensure a continuous supply of wood let alone protecting biodiversity and one of the most important parts of the Earth's life support system.

ii) The Importance of Reforestation.

I: Three Ways of Combatting Global Warming.

There are three ways to combat global warming - reduce greenhouse gas emissions, stop deforestation and finally, implement Reforestation programmes. Whilst the world's political leaders seem disinterested in pursuing any of these three options, the green movement has focussed almost entirely on demanding reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. But, there are geophysiological reasons for arguing that Reforestation is the most important means of combatting global warming.

II: Reforestation as the Main Priority for Combatting Global Warming.

Forests have a much bigger impact on the global climate than the concentration of greenhouse gases. For example, the Amazon Rainforest's main impact on the global climate is not the extraction of Carbon from the atmosphere but its albedo effect, the reflection of the sun's heat back into space. Cut down the Amazon Rainforest and a huge amount of Carbon pollution would be dumped into the atmosphere but what would give an even bigger, and much more immediate, boost to global warming would be the loss of the continent-wide clouds hanging over the Rainforests which cool the Planet. As a consequence, Reforestation would have a bigger, and much more immediate, impact on reducing global temperatures than reducing Carbon emissions not merely because it could absorb atmospheric Carbon but because it would increase the Earth's albedo effect reflecting more heat into space.

iii) The Importance of Balancing National Carbon Budgets.

I: Balancing Historical Carbon Budgets.

Although Reforestation is the most important priority for combatting global warming, the issues which then arise are how much Reforestation is needed; what countries need to carry out Reforestation; and the scale of the Reforestation which needs to take place in these countries. These issues can be determined by examining each country's historical Carbon status i.e. the amount of Carbon pollution dumped into the atmosphere and the quantity of carbon absorbed by Forests. It is possible not only to combat global warming through Reforestation, but to do so on a just and equal basis, by demanding that countries balance their historical Carbon budgets.

II: Historical Carbon Debtors and Historical Carbon Creditors.

Over the last two centuries, some countries have exported far more Carbon (through atmospheric pollution) than they have imported (through Photosynthesis) and can be defined as historical Carbon debtors, whilst other countries have imported more Carbon than they have exported and can be deemed historical Carbon creditors.

III: Repaying Carbon Debts and Spending Carbon Credits.

In order to balance their ecological budgets, the Carbon debtors (mainly the over-industrialized nations) would have to repay their debts by importing an amount of Carbon equivalent to the surplus they have released over the last two centuries, and the Carbon creditors (mainly third world countries) would be able to continue exporting Carbon, i.e. continue to develop, until their emissions were equal to the net amount of Carbon they have absorbed over the last couple of centuries. Balancing Carbon budgets would have the effect of forcing the over-industrialized countries to repay their historical Carbon debts to third world countries.

A global scientific body like the inter-governmental panel on climate change would be needed to calculate every country's Carbon import-export record over the last two centuries to determine how much Carbon each one would have to import, or would be allowed to export, in order to balance their Carbon budgets.

The global adoption of balanced Carbon budgets would indicate how much of the Earth should be Reforested and which countries need to carry out Reforestation.

Historical Carbon debtor countries would repay their Carbon debts through a combination of emissions' reduction, reforestation and, if necessary, deconstruction to create the room to plant the additional Forests needed to soak up more atmospheric Carbon. Given the scale of the over-industrialized nations' historical Carbon debts, the only way they could repay their debts, and thereby play their part in combatting global warming, would be by digging up some of their industrial infrastructure. It has been estimated that the Earth is one continent short of the quota of Forests which is needed to avert global warming. The overindustrialized nations are going to have to find a lot of land for Reforestation.