INTERNATIONAL TREE PROTECTION COMMISSION  (ITPC)

COMMISSION INTERNATIONALE POUR LA PROTECTION DES ARBRES

COMISION INTERNACIONAL PARA LA PROTECCION DE LAS PLANTAS

COMMISSIONE INTERNAZIONALE PER LA PROTEZIONE DELLE PIANTE

Welcome on the website of the International Tree Protection Commission.

The International Tree Protection Commission (ITPC), is an Inter-Institutional Organization acting as international platform dedicated to build Climate Resilience through Disaster Risk Reduction, by tree and forestry preservation, ecological sustainability and environmental protection, as well as for sharing best practices and technical knowledge on efficient and long-lasting climate change reduction, through effective tree preservation.

The ITPC Commission has a mixed character: from one side it is formed by experts and research fellows working on the field of tree conservation, on the other side it gathers International Institutions, Governmental Agencies and Ministries, Ministerial Departments, Local Authorities and Communities, NGOs and Civil Society Organizations, for widespread tree protection.  

The ITPC has been established as emanation of the International Emergency Management Organization (IEMO) www.iemo.int, following the first Intergovernmental Organizations Conference on Emergency Prevention and Sustainable Development www.igo-conference.org, held in Rome, 25/27 September 2014, under the High Patronage of the Presidency of the Italian Republic, Italian Senate and Chamber of Deputies, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Intl. Cooperation, Italian Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Public Administration, well as in full support the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for the promotion of study, research and dialogue among the scientific community, international institutions, Governmental Agencies, NGOs and the private sector to reduce global warming effect and to promote sustainable development though the diffusion of the culture of tree preservation, for avoiding the cutting of trees, at local, national and global level.

Trees naturally absorb atmospheric CO2 and therefore represent the best way to preserve the delicate environmental equilibrium, avoiding a wide series of natural and socio-economic emergencies caused by climate change

Protecting trees and reducing tree exploitation for combustible or mere speculative reason, will result in a progressive reduction of climate change in full pursuance of the numerous international undertakings (Agenda 21, Copenhagen Summit, Rio+20, and Paris CoP 21) thereto agreed.

Climate Change can be mitigated by the protection and augmentation of trees as CO2 absorbers and for this reason their safeguard in quantitative and qualitative terms, represents a global priority and a sound imperative for the International Community.

Avoiding cutting of trees means giving to the atmosphere the ultimate chance of reducing Co2 in a natural way, contrasting sierra effect and therefore balancing the enormous quantity of warming  emissions.

INITIATIVES OF THE COMMISSION

According to the Commission’s authoritative point of view it is unthinkable and unbearable that in the era of hydrogen as fuel, high-tech research and exploration, internet and nano-technologies the world could rely on wood for heating, cooking of or electrical produce.

The real fuel for tomorrow is, from one side hydrogen and hybrid energetic sources like solar-heolic power points, which allow high efficiency and reliable energy produce and therefore the use of trees and wood as fuel for electric produce or individual consumption is to be considered too expensive in terms of climate change and the numerous disasters caused by global warming.

So, the primary goal of the International Plant Protection Commission is the reduction of tree demolition, by acting act as authoritative consultancy platform for law and decision making and scientific assertion for encouraging decision makers and political leaders to promote anti cutting campaigns, laws and legislations.

Cutting healthy trees just for reason of easiness or profit is a “cheap” but terrible decision.

Deprived from trees the environment cannot resist .

In particular the commission aims to:

1. Declare trees as patrimony of mankind, since they allow living conditions and without trees the life on the planet arth will immediately collapse.
2. reduce or abolish the use of healthy living trees as fuel for biomass electric power points. During the years the normal biomass matrix, represented by maize, has been replaced by wood. But the wood is largely obtained by cutting healthy living trees instead of using dead trees or fallen down ones. This is a great mistake: using healthy trees as fuel is a total nonsense because it literally misinterprets the goal of biomass power points: reducing C02 using ecologic renewable sources Trees themselves are already reducing C02 by filtering the air, therefore to use them as fuel, destroying the natural filters (with the pretext of reducing C02 emissions) is a non-sense. Instead it must be encouraged the use of dead or fallen down trees, mixed biomass from humid wastes and infesting vegetal biomass (as water Jacinta and seaweed) as well as from animal sewage (a great opportunity for a correct use of large biomasses of animal wastes, otherwise non utilized and environmentally dangerous)
3. reducing or abolish the use of healthy living trees as fuel for individual consumption for heating (pellet stoves) Pellet stoves represent a serious danger for the environment because they release lot of harmful PM 10 ( particulate) and must be alimented by wooden pellets for at least for 20-30 years. Instead the Commission proposes the use of other species of combustible fuel (wood from wooden wastes, recycled wood, wood and compressed paper, compressed paper and coal, as well as obtained by mixtures of other components) and not from healthy living trees. Research in this field must be encouraged and
4. Reducing or abolish the use of healthy living trees for cooking, as it happens mainly in Least Developed Countries, by promoting the use of solar cookers (economic and practical)
5. Reducing the cutting and the demolition of healthy living public trees by local authorities, which often, with the pretext of road safety misinterpret the various national road regulations and demolish a large number of healthy trees at the margins of public roads. Instead the Commission encourages the use of velocity dissuaders and of guard-rails placed between the trees and the road.
6. Reducing the cutting of trees in urban areas, often encouraged by local authorities for the scarcity of economic means to take care of public green and therefore demolished to save money. Instead the Commission proposes the mobilization of voluntary resources (as volunteer associations and individual volunteers) engaging themselves in taking care of public trees instead of demolishing them.
7. These goals hsll be dealt by thematic committees within the Scientific Committee of the ITPC Commission (responsible for emitting Authority expertise to reduce the cutting of trees as well as enhancing sustainable energetic policies) as well as by the Legislative Committee (responsible for drafting and encouraging tree preserving legislations)
8. other bodies of the ITPC are: the Research and Development Panel (RDP), responsible for research in alternative fuels to wood and alternative energy solutions and the Urban Policies Group (UPG) focused on urban trees and trees on extra-urban roads.