Today we are going to look at SDG 15 in closer detail we are going to look at some key concepts and What is this spirit and what is the message and the challenges behind?
SDG 15 but before doing that I would like to invite you to join me in making a little tour. On global forest ecosystems to see their beauty their magic their relevance to so many Societies worldwide and to all of us that live in this planet so join me Well I hope you have enjoyed this tour that we have Provided to you through these different ratio ecosystems Different forests throughout the world which is so important? For all of us, and Iwould like to invite you to go through the main targets of SDG 15, but i would like to explain a little bit, what is behind it, so there are nine targets

Remember out of the 17 goes each goal has a certain number of targets and these targets have indicators and Now we are going to go through those nine targets related to terrestrial ecosystems the first one is to ensure by 2020 the conservation and restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and Inland fresh water so that they provide services and they provide products to all societies involved and important to note here that inland freshwater is seen as part of Terrestrial ecosystems rivers are important take the case of the Amazon

We have here something called a gap or forests which are flooded forests and during part of the year all the fish go inside these forests and feed on fruits on Insects and on all kinds of living creatures, and this is essential for their life strategies so terrestrial ecosystems and freshwater Ecosystems are very much interconnected number two the second target again by 2020 promote the implementation of sustainable management on all types of forests in how deforestation and degradation an increase forestation

Restoration globally so that means that all these forests which are either damaged by improper use or That are not being sustainable managed there is a target to move in the direction of sustainable use of those forests and restoration of those ecosystems

Number three is a focus on the certification in Restoration of land and soil it presents the challenge of combating desertification which is a major issue in specifically some parts of the world like in Africa around the Sahara Desert in the dry lands of Latin America we have dry lands in the Northeast of Brazil have dry lands in in North America and in many other parts of the World in Asia as well so combat desertification is critical because the certification leads often times to degradation of freshwater ecosystems and increasing droughts and floods Affected by this this process number four is to ensure the conservation of mountain ecosystems and

Here is something very critical because mountain forests are essential to protect the watersheds that oftentimes Begin in mountains and so protection of these mountains is essential and we have cases in Asia for example in the POW in the headwaters of the rivers in these slopes of the Himalayas It was very essential to maintain These forest ecosystems for the products are relevant to the societies living in that region but also for those living downstream that benefit from the protection of soil and water in those catchment areas

Number five is to take action to prevent the extinction of threatened species a number of threatened species especially in ecosystems which are subject to fragmentation which require urgent action

Number six is sharing benefits it isa target which focuses on on the distribution of benefits and especially those associated with genetic Resources in a way that is not restrictive keep poor people included in those Benefits

Number seven is a focus on poaching and trafficking and illegal wildlife products So it was to take urgent action to end those activities of both flora and fauna species number eight is by 2020 introduce measures to reduce the impact of invasive alien species Which oftentimes as a result of travel of and movement of materials create all kinds of disruption in Natural ecosystems as a consequence of alien species becoming invasive in displacing native species from those Terrestrial ecosystems

Number nine is to integrate ecosystem biodiversity values international and local planning because the mindset of planners is usually controlled and Historically led by economists who for most of the time didnot have the appropriate understanding of the value of Biodiversity not only the very per se but also even in economic sense that protecting those forest ecosystems is economically relevant for the development of countries so it was very important to integrate in the Planning at the national and local level the use of biodiversity this integration means that we need to mobilize financial resources for Conservation and for sustainable use so integrating these Issues in the national and local planning is a key part of a strategy to secure appropriate financing for Forest conservation forest management, and I would like to go through some key concepts of forest ecosystems

The first one is forest dynamics The forests are not static They are extremely changing over time forests go through a history of disturbances natural disturbances over millennia and also anthropogenic disturbances, so it's very important to look at at these ecosystems not as museum pieces, but rather as Dynamic entities that interact over time that are constantly changing

So that was concept number one concept number two is resilience Forests are vulnerable to many threats one can think of human-induced threats such as illegal logging illegal extraction of different products and also Climate change related threats and here I think the most critical one is A most obvious one is force fires. We have forest fires Throughout the globe we have those in North America in the west coast which are very well known We have in Australia We have in parts of the Amazon in the Congo Basin basically throughout the world and it was very important to increase resist means our forests to those threats and their number of ways and we are going to explore some of these in in future chapters of this course another Concept that I would like to talk to you is about storage of carbon Forests play a very important role in storing carbon.

There are some 650 billion tons of carbon Is stored in the in forests so it was a huge component of? a strategy to combat climate change to not only maintain those carbon stocks in existing forests, but also to sequester more carbon through forest growth and through forest restoration And as you can see in this table there is distribution of carbon in most Terrestrial ecosystems which are extremely Variable and you have tropical forest temperate forests and these different types of forest ecosystems with different Carbon stocks, but all of them are part of an important equation of climate change

The fourth concept I would like to talk to you is biodiversity conservation in forests Forests are the most biodiverse Terrestrial ecosystems on earth they house a large number of birds mammals Insects and all kinds of creatures that are so relevant Not only to maintain those ecosystems functioning well, but also they are important reservoirs of genetic material that can be used for food for medicine and for all kinds of human needs biodiversity is essential for our future in terms of keeping nature functioning and also in terms of the uses that we can make of this biodiversity and here we closed with a vision that forests are variable worldwide they are very heterogeneous They play very important roles, and we have these key concepts that are essential to understand the roles that forests play in relation to The sustainable development goals, I would like to wrap up this chapter Reminding how Many challenges we have in relation to forests And how the SDG a framework provides a comprehensive approach divided into nine targets related to Forests in all the territory for systems that are essential elements to reach the sustainable development goals


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