WRI’s Southern Forests for the Future project seeks to raise awareness of the threats facing the forests of the southern United States and lay the foundation for increasing the acreage that is conserved or managed in a sustainable manner.
Through Southern Forests for the Future, WRI seeks to:
- Increase public awareness about the threats facing southern U.S. forests and the value they provide;
- Identify and develop a portfolio of options that align economic incentives with stewardship of southern forests; and
- Pilot test the options and prepare to roll out those demonstrating most promise.
(Homepage photo credit: Flickr user nrdc_media.)
About Southern Forests
The forests of the southern United States are a national and global treasure. They constitute 29 percent of the forestland in the United States. Stretching from east Texas to Virginia and from Kentucky to Florida, these 200+ million acres are one of the most biologically diverse temperate forests in the world. They provide people with a wide range of benefits or ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, timber, watershed protection, and recreation.
However, these forests are under tremendous pressure. For example, thirty-one million acres are expected to be lost to suburban sprawl by 2040 as the region’s population booms. In some areas, mining for coal and other resources denude large areas. These growing pressures threaten to undermine the forest’s ability to sequester carbon, support a rich array of biodiversity, and provide people with other benefits and services they depend upon and value.
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About The Project
Through Southern Forests for the Future, WRI seeks to tackle the challenges facing southern U.S. forests by:
- Increasing public awareness about the threats facing southern forests and the value they provide. Many people fail to grasp the extent of southern forest degradation because continuous but dispersed change often goes unnoticed. To address this, WRI is conducting research to create time-series maps that reveal trends and changes in southern forests. WRI is developing a new web portal, seemyforest.org (accessible in January 2010), that will allow schoolchildren, universities, citizens, interest groups, and others to access these maps and scroll over and zoom in on areas of interest. In addition, WRI is assessing the benefits of southern forest, key causes of forest loss, and implications for human and environmental well-being. WRI will publish the results of this research in a report that includes the satellite-based forest maps.
- Identifying and developing a portfolio of options that align economic incentives with keeping forest as forest. A key factor underlying forest loss is that economic incentives are not aligned with keeping forest as forest. Recognizing this, WRI will conduct research to identify a portfolio of incentives that could encourage private landowners to retain their forests and manage them sustainably to provide a range of ecosystem services. WRI will convene a regional workshop to discuss and refine a draft portfolio of incentives with academics, economists, NGOs, family and industrial forest owners, and others. After incorporating feedback, WRI will publish a research report that describes each incentive option.
- Pilot testing options and rolling out those demonstrating most promise. WRI will pilot test several of the incentives from the portfolio of options in order to iron out design “kinks” and demonstrate their feasibility so they can be replicated elsewhere in the region. During the pilot tests, we will collaborate with regional stakeholders and organizations.
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Climate Change And Southern Forests
Forests are one of three major approaches for reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere (the other two are energy efficiency and low-carbon energy sources). As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide and store it as carbon in their branches, trunks, and roots as well as in the surrounding soil and debris.
The forests of the United States currently absorb more carbon dioxide than they release, thereby acting as a carbon “sink” and reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. In 2006, U.S. forests reduced total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5% or 884 million metric tons (see chart). In effect, U.S. forests absorbed more carbon dioxide than the residential and commercial sectors emitted.
However, the ability of U.S. forests to provide this important climate benefit is in jeopardy. The U.S. Forest Service projects that more than 50 million acres of forest will be cleared and developed by 2050, with a disproportionate share of this loss occurring in the South. Clearing these forests will release greenhouse gases, shrink the size of the nation’s carbon “sink”, and ultimately increase net national emissions.
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Photo credits (flickr.com): Jeff Kubina, thisisbossi, nrdc media
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