More than 100 world leaders promise to end deforestation

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More than 100 global leaders lateon Monday pledged to halt and reverse deforestation and landdegradation by the end of the decade, underpinned by $19 billion USin public and private funds to invest in protecting andrestoring forests.

Thejoint statement at the COP26 climate talksin Glasgow was backed by the leaders of countries that collectively account for 85 per cent of the world's forests. Those countries supporting the planincludedBrazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Congo, Indonesia, Russia and the United States.

The Conference of Parties (COP) meets every year and is the global decision-making body set upin the early 1990sto implement theUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Changeand subsequent climate agreements.

• Have questions about COP26 or climate science, policy or politics? Email us:ask@cbc.ca. Your input helps inform our coverage.

The new Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forest and Land Use willcover forests totalling more than 33.6 million square kilometres,according to a statement from the U.K. prime minister's office onbehalf of the leaders.

"We will have a chance to end humanity's long history asnature's conqueror, and instead become its custodian," saidBritish leader Boris Johnson, calling it an unprecedentedagreement.

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The west African nation of Gabon is trying to wean itself off oil revenue and maintain the bulk of its gigantic forest with judicious cutting of old growth trees and the creation of local jobs. (Chistophe Van Der Perre/Reuters)

$1.7Bfor Indigenous Peoples

Five countries, including Britain and the United States, anda group of global charities also pledged to provide$1.7 billion in financing to support Indigenous Peoples' conservation of forests and to strengthen their land rights.They did not specify which communities would get the funding.

Environmentalists say that Indigenous communities are thebest protectors of the forest, often against violentencroachment of loggers and land grabbers.

Forests absorb roughly 30 per centof carbon dioxide emissions,according to the nonprofit World Resources Institute. Theforests take the emissions out of the atmosphere and preventthem from warming the climate.

Yet this natural climate buffer is rapidly disappearing. Theworld lost 258,000 square kilometres of forest in 2020,according to WRI's deforestation tracking initiative GlobalForest Watch. That is an area larger than the United Kingdom.

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'If we don't get serious about climate change today, it will be too late for our children to do so tomorrow,' said U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the opening of COP26 in Glasgow. He compared climate change to a doomsday device, saying it's one minute to midnight.(Credit: pool via Reuters/Jeff J Mitchell)

Monday's agreement vastly expands a similar commitment madeby 40 countries as part of the 2014 New York Declaration ofForests and goes further than ever before in laying out theresources to reach that goal.

Under the agreement, 12 countries including Britain havepledged to provide $12 billion US of publicfunding between 2021 and 2025 to help developing countries,including in efforts to restore degraded land and tacklewildfires.

At least a further $7.2 billion would be provided bymore than 30 private sector investors including Aviva,Schroders and AXA. The investors, representing $8.7 trillion in assets undermanagement, also pledged to stop investing in activities linkedto deforestation by 2025.

COP26 aims to keep alive a target of capping global warmingat 1.5 degrees Celsiusabove pre-industriallevels. Scientists say forests and so-called nature-basedsolutions will be vital to reaching that goal.