Burning rainforests accounts for 20% of greenhouse gases
Seeing a burned-down rainforest is like going to a football match where all the fans are dead, or an opera where people are lying around bleeding.
That was the stark analogy from biologist Andrew Mitchell, Founder of Global Canopy and Advisor to the Prince of Wales Rainforest Project, at the launch of World Travel Market’s World Responsible Tourism Day.
After watching a video with delegates about the effects of deforestation, Mitchell said: “It brought a lump to my throat. Forests are living carbon.”
He said 13 million hectares of rainforest are burned down each year – equivalent to the size of England and accounting for 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Emissions from deforestation surpass the carbon footprint of all the cars, planes and ships transporting tourists and equate to 12.5 million people flying between London and New York every day.
“Rainforests are worth more dead than alive so we have to turn that on its head,” said Mitchell.
He said the trees make way for crops such as soy to feed livestock which provide us with chicken and beef, while palm oil is used in soaps and cosmetics.
“We are eating the Amazon without realising,” he said at World Travel Market, the premier global event for the travel industry.
He urged the travel and tourism industry to support the Forest Footprint Disclosure Project, which asks firms disclose how their operations and supply chains are affect forests and what is being done to manage those effects responsibly.
Although a treaty on climate change may not be signed at next month’s crucial UN summit in Copenhagen, Mitchell said agreement could be reached on reducing emissions from deforestation, generating the billions of dollars need to halt the devastation.
Delegates were also invited to Trafalgar Square next week to view a “ghost forest” of trees from Ghana, which is part of a week of campaigning activities highlighting the dangers of deforestation and climate change.
Stephen Sackur, host of BBC’s HARDTalk, presented the opening sessions of the WTM World Responsible Tourism Day.
He recalled visiting the Ilulissat ice fjord in Greenland, which is the fastest melting glacier in the world, creating “amazing” ice sculptures.
“It was truly beautiful but I fervently hope that this growth in ‘climate change tourism’ is one sector of the tourism market that does not grow,” he said.
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About World Travel Market
World Travel Market, the premier global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.
Almost 50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on ExCeL - London every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM.
WTM, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2009, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals.
WTM is owned by the world’s leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions (RE), which organises a portfolio of other travel industry events including Arabian Travel Market and International Luxury Travel Market.
RE holds more than 500 events in 38 countries throughout Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific covering 47 industry sectors including aerospace & aviation, healthcare, manufacturing and sport & recreation.
In 2008 RE, part of the Reed Elsevier group, brought together more than six million industry professionals from around the world generating billions of dollars in business.
