Tropical countries that stop the logging or burning of their rainforests
could be paid for the carbon they stop reaching the atmosphere, under proposals
to be discussed at UN climate change talks in December.
With major commitments to make deep cuts in carbon emissions from the United
States, China or India, a deal establishing a way for rich countries to pay for
"avoided deforestation" now look like a diplomatic winner at the talks to be
held in Bali.
Logging and burning of tropical forest is estimated to produce around 20 per
cent of global carbon emissions - about the same as the emissions from the
United States or China.
So avoiding deforestation - by paying carbon credits to countries who set up and
enforce protected areas or give forest inhabitants secure land tenure - is seen
as one of the potential "low hanging fruit" to be grasped by a post-Kyoto
climate change treaty.
It has support, so far, from the United States and the big developing countries
which are opposed to mandatory emission reductions.
Sir Nicholas Stern, the Treasury's then chief economic adviser, said in his
report last year that deforestation emitted more than the transport sector
globally and stopping those emissions was the most cost-effective way of
tackling climate change.
advertisementA proposal led by Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica for rainforest
countries to take on national commitments to avoid deforestation in return for
payments from the developed world has been sitting around for a couple of years,
quietly gathering support.
As its proposers cleverly offered it as a first draft, no country has yet
declared itself to be opposed to the proposal and now experts say it stands a
good chance of becoming part of the agreement reached at the negotiations on a
successor to the Kyoto climate treaty.
"No one has yet tried to kick it to death, which is a good sign," said John
Lanchbery, climate change expert for the Royal Society for the Protection of
Birds, who was in Jakarta, Indonesia, last week to hold discussions on how
rainforest projects might be developed.
Earlier this year the RSPB and its local partner Burung Indonesia bought a
logging concession of 240,000 acres on the island of Sumatra - and chose not to
log it.
Indonesian law had to be changed so they did not have to do so. The deal with
the Forestry Ministry, which conservationists see as ground-breaking, permits
the management of forests to obtain benefits called "ecosystem services".
The Harapan rainforest harbours 24 Sumatran tigers, the Asian elephant and a
number of clouded leopards. It has 267 bird species, more than Britain, the most
endangered being the Storm's stork, of which there may be only 250 left in the
wild.
Directly benefiting will be the 150-strong Batin Sembilan tribe, a nomadic
people that will continue to harvest rubber, honey, fruits and rattan for their
own use.
This is the kind of project it is thought might attract funding under the scheme
to be discussed in Bali, but rainforest countries are still divided as to
whether an international fund, paid for by governments, should be set up to pay
for it or whether credits bought by western companies on the carbon trading
markets should be used to pay for it.
Brazil has always been keen on a fund but they have not been a success
internationally and the carbon trading markets potentially offer billions.
The World Bank, whose former chief economist, the Nobel prize winning Joe
Stiglitz worked up the idea, has shown itself willing to put up money to help
tropical countries develop national strategies to avert deforestation. Sir
Nicholas Stern, another supporter of the idea, is also a former chief economist
to the World Bank.
Mr Lanchbery of the RSPB observes: "Nobody says it is a bad idea. There are just
disagreements over how to do it. It is not the perfect solution but it is the
only one on the table at present. I don't see why it shouldn't go through."
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