Paying to stop deforestation

A significant step forward in the battle against climate change was made this week with agreement from around 50 nations for the rapid deployment of more than $4bn to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) - which is responsible for more CO2 than every motorized vehicle on the planet.

With deforestation accounting for the same amount of global warming pollution as all the cars, trucks, ships, and planes in the world we must turn the corner on this issue if we are to address climate change. Every second that we delay action on deforestation we lose an area the size of two football fields, as the statement says.

In a related move, Indonesia, which has allowed widespread destruction of its tropical forests in recent decades, has announced it will impose a two-year moratorium on new forestry concessions beginning in 2011. In exchange, the Norwegian government — which has played a key role in trying to slow deforestation worldwide — will give Indonesia $1 billion to preserve forests and promote sustainable forestry programs.

Indonesian government recently granted a concession for companies to convert a 4-million-acre forest tract in western New Guinea into palm oil plantations. Indonesia has the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emissions due primarily to forest loss.