Save our forests, UN boss urges

 By LAZARUS BIRA
FORESTS are essential for combating climate change, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his International Day of Forests message to Papua New Guinea.
“It is important that we continue to remind ourselves about the life-saving services that forests and trees provide us each day,” he said.
“A world without forests or trees would simply be a desert or ice land – a world that could not allow people to live in it.”
Forests are a major source for carbon storage and as they grow, they help to address climate change, his message added.
Climate change is the average increase in the earth’s temperature which has begun to alter the earth’s climate at an unprecedented rate and posing threat to the environment, people and the economy.
“As weather patterns alter due to climate change, many forested areas are increasingly vulnerable,” he said.
Ban said the threats underlied the urgency for a legally binding global agreement to address green house gas emissions and encourage the protection and sustainable management of forests.
He said forests provided people with the most useful social, economic and environmental benefits.
“We need to intensify the efforts to protect forests and incorporate them into the post-2015 development agenda and the sustainable development goals,” Ban  said.
“I urge the governments, businesses and all the sectors of the society to commit to reduce deforestation and prevent forest degradation.”