Carbon Forestry in the Gola Rainforest in Sierra Leone Essay

Carbon Forestry in the Gola Rainforest in Sierra Leone - Essay Example WE will also examine drivers of deforestation and degradation in the Gola forest. Qualitative study using maps was used in Sierra Leone on developments of the REDD+ mechanism in helping address deforestation. While REDD+ carries potential benefits, the prospects for its successful implementation in a developing country like Sierra Leone faces multiple challenges to meeting both its objectives and opportunities to improve livelihood of the local communities. Global forests, particularly tropical rainforests, play a key role in climate regulation. They provide a range of other benefits such as rainfall for agriculture, flood prevention and biodiversity. However, human activities have significant impacts on forests which in turn affect climate and wider ecosystem services. Deforestation is a major contribution to climatic changes, deforestation alone has contributed to about 20 percent of global greenhouse gases (Gullison et al., 2007). In West Africa, the moist and semi deciduous forests that stretch across Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Cote D Ivoire and Ghana have attracted attention as the assumed remainder of a once Upper Guinea forest ecosystem has progressively reduced due to deforestation and degradation. In various ways, international climate change negotiations have created opportunities and attention to the task of how to effectively slow down deforestation in developing countries. It would not only reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but would also provide additional benefits to the climate system including preserving the net carbon sink that may be present in old growth tropical forests and protect the environment. The basic goal is to preserve trees that would otherwise be cut down and thus release carbon dioxide, the most commonly emitted greenhouse gas. The REDD document specifically encourages parties to explore a range of actions, identify options,