Argentina commits to restoring one million hectares (2.5 million acres) of woodland. [View all]

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Argentina committed yesterday to restoring one million hectares of degraded and deforested land as part of the 20x20 Initiative, a Latin American effort seeking to significantly restore the region's woodlands by 2020. This makes Argentina's commitment one of the largest in a total 24.8 million hectares to be restored around the world hope thanks to US$730 million on funds assigned by governments and investors globally as part of the broader Bonn Challenge.

The new commitments announced yesterday are built on pledges by eight countries, two regional initiatives and five investors. The 20x20 initiative had already been launched last year at the climate change summit in Lima, hoping to restore 18 million hectares; but now thanks to the new pledges - including this one - an additional 6.18 mil. hectares will be restored.

Land restoration is a key strategy for mitigating and adapting to climate change.
“Argentina is one of the leading countries in the region on agricultural production so its involvement in the project was essential. It has a strong potential to restore a lot of its degraded land,” Walter Vergara, head of the initiative, told the Herald. “We hope to have a constructive dialogue with the newly elected government (Macri) so the one million hectares objective becomes a reality.”

Following Argentina’s commitment, Nicaragua agreed yesterday to restore 2.8 million hectares; Costa Rica and Honduras, one million each; Chile, 500,000; the State of São Paulo (Brazil) 300,000 hectares; the State of Espirito Santo (Brazil) 80,000; and the American Bird Conservancy, a regional program, 100,000.

Land-use change, forestry and agriculture account for roughly one half of the emissions from Latin America and the Caribbean, in contrast to highly industrialized and less forested areas where emissions are typically dominated by energy use and industrial emissions.

More than 200 million hectares (500 million acres) of land are available for restoration in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI). Through the initiative, countries will work to restore forests on cleared land and improve the productivity of landscapes through better use of trees in agriculture and livestock production.

At: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/204462/argentina-commits-to-restoring-one-million-hectares
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There's the rub: “We hope to have a constructive dialogue with the newly elected government so the one million hectares objective becomes a reality.”

This commitment will probably feel as left out in a neocon administration like Macri's, as a bible in a brothel.