Federal Environment Ministry provides 10 million euro for World Bank fund
The Federal Environment Ministry is making available an additional amount of 10 million euro for tropical forest conservation. This announcement was made by Federal Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen on Tuesday in Nagoya, Japan. Minister Röttgen noted: "Approximately 13 million hectares of forest are still being lost each year. Tropical forests play a prominent role for biological diversity and for climate protection. The loss of these forests will not only destroy our basis of life today but also that of future generations."
In Nagoya Federal Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen took part in a ministerial meeting of the Global Forest Partnership to conserve tropical forests. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The Global Partnership supports the international climate negotiations in the development of a global mechanism to stop deforestation and destructive forest use (REDD+). The 10 million euro made available by the Federal Environment Ministry will be paid into a World Bank fund providing support to forest conservation measures in tropical countries. Moreover, the Federal Environment Ministry also contributes to the operational costs of the Global Forest Partnership. The Global Forest Partnership was established in Paris in March this year.
The core elements of a comprehensive work programme for the Partnership for the next two years was presented at the Nagoya meeting. The programme explicitly combines climate protection and forest conservation and as a consequence also biodiversity conservation. The Federal Environment Minister stressed that biodiversity not only has an intangible value for the world but that a monetary value is also attached to it. Minister Röttgen confirmed that the Federal Environment Ministry intends to commission a study which will exactly assess the economic value of biodiversity in Germany. The study will be conducted along the same lines as the international study "The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity" (TEEB). The final results of the TEEB study, which was predominantly initiated by Germany, were presented at the CBD conference in Nagoya.
Within the framework of its International Climate Initiative the Federal Environment Ministry already funds numerous projects directed towards the conservation, preservation and sustainable use of tropical forests.