Reforestation can help Thailand honour Paris climate commitment

Signed in 2016, the Paris Agreement’s goal is to confine the rise in global surface temperature to not above 1.5 degrees Celsius of the pre-industrial levels by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and reach net zero by 2050.

As of February last year, 195 members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change had made a commitment. To achieve this goal, Thailand needs to seek areas for storing 120 million tons equivalent of greenhouse gas by 2037.

Also, Thailand has to restore biodiversity under the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework, which aims to designate 30% of Earth's terrestrial and aquatic areas as protected areas by 2030.

Mae Fah Luang Foundation CEO Dispanadda Diskul said biodiverse forests and community participation were crucial to meet the Paris agreement targets. 

He believes that global society would review carbon credit standards by paying attention to biodiversity and benefits to communities.

“Having forests alone would not be enough, because the world needs biodiverse forests,” he said. “To ensure sustainability of forests and biodiversity, people should take care of them.”

Dispanadda said that the foundation had restored 90,000 rai (14,400 hectares) of forests over the past 36 years, creating jobs for over 10,000 people and generated carbon credits of over 419,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The foundation has collaborated with public and private agencies in restoring over 258,186 rai (41,309.76 hectares) of forests in 281 communities, he explained.

He affirmed that community forest restoration also helped mitigate the impact of forest fires from 22% to 0.86%.

Reforestation is among solutions to tackle natural disasters, expand forest areas, create jobs and generate income for communities, he said.

He added that the foundation aims to expand community forest restoration to 1 million rai (160,000 hectares) by 2027 of the total 6.8 million rai (1.08 million hectares).

Meanwhile the director-general of the Department of Climate Change and Environment, Phirun Saiyasitpanich, said climate change had become more severe, impacting the Thai economy, society and environment, causing natural disasters, biodiversity loss, and a change in trade and investment regulations.

Thailand should keep the rise in global surface temperature at below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, as well as achieve carbon neutrality and net-zero carbon emission by 2050 and 2065 respectively, he said.