Rainforest protection plan takes shape

By Peter Gelling

NUSA DUA, Indonesia: Governments at the United Nations meeting on climate change were close to agreement Friday on a system that would compensate developing countries for protecting their rain forests, a plan that environmentalists described as an innovative effort to mitigate global warming. The cutting down of forests across the globe contributes a startling 20 percent of the world's annual greenhouse pollution through burning, gases released from deforested soil and smoldering peat, scientists say. By comparison, the U.S. share of greenhouse emissions is 24 percent of the world total. "It's a landmark in bringing a large group of developing countries into active participation in reducing emissions," said Philip Clapp, deputy managing director of the Pew Environment Group, the conservation arm of the Pew charitable trusts in the United States. "It has the potential for the first time to generate the kind of investment in forest protection that has been unavailable until now."

Doug Boucher, the director of the tropical forest and climate initiative of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit U.S. group, called the plan a major breakthrough in helping combat global warming. "Up until now we have left deforestation out of our attempts to address climate change," Boucher said. He said cutting down forests contributed more to global warming annually than all types of transportation combined. The precise ways that countries with large rainforests, like Indonesia and Brazil, would be compensated have not been fully worked out. UN officials said that part of the financing would come from developed countries via aid and that other funds would come from carbon credits - part of the system of incentives for reducing greenhouse gases mandated by the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 pact. Norway has pledged nearly $2.8 billion over five years to developing countries that preserve their forests. Officials said Indonesia, which has the third-largest area of rainforest after Brazil and Congo, rallied developing countries to support the plan, which had been held up for years in part by disputes over how to measure the reduction in greenhouse gases from preserving forests.

"This agreement is very important to us and to the world," said Nurmasripatin, a member of the Indonesian delegation at the conference, which is taking place in Bali. "There is consensus that we must limit carbon emissions from deforestation. But developing countries are not able to do it on their own." The World Bank estimates that Indonesia - the world's third-leading emitter of greenhouse gases, after China and the United States, mainly because of the destruction of its forests - could, along with other major forested countries, earn billions of dollars if the plan is successful. The proposed system, the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries plan, is part of the wider discussions here on reaching a global agreement on addressing climate change. The talks, which began on Dec. 3 and were nearing their conclusion Friday, are aimed at reaching an accord to start two years of negotiations to work out a new treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012. Environmentalists said the plan to protect forests was a good start, but some had reservations about its implementation. Frances Seymour, director for the Center for International Forestry Research, a nonprofit U.S. group, voiced concern that the system was vulnerable to corruption and could be undermined by a growing demand for biofuels. Global demand for palm oil, a popular biofuel, has increased sharply in recent years and has led to the widespread clearing of tropical forests to make way for palm plantations.

Seymour also said she worried that the benefits of the UN plan would not reach indigenous people who derive their homes and livelihoods from the forests and could even displace them as companies buy up land in order to receive the compensation. "We have to make sure those who are not as well connected have their interests recognized as well," Seymour said. The World Bank, together with the Nature Conservancy, another U.S. environmental group, announced this week the establishment of several pilot projects to further the aims of the UN plan. A $100 million Readiness Fund will provide developing countries with technical and financial assistance to measure the carbon now stored in forests and assess the factors that contribute to forest loss. And under a $200 million Carbon Fund, developing countries will be offered financial incentives to meet specific targets, such as reducing their rate of forest loss. Thomas Fuller contributed reporting from Nusa Dua.

China glaciers shrinking High-altitude glaciers in China's remote west have shrunk as much as 18 percent over the last five years because of global warming, Xinhua reported Friday, citing preliminary results from a continuing survey, Reuters reported from Beijing. The shrinkage was most evident in two areas in the far Western region of Xinjiang and in part of Tibet, said Xinhua, the official news agency.

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(Jakarta, Kamis 21 February 2008, 07.39 pagi)

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