REDD

The Burning Season explores one of the proposed to solutions to deforestation in Indonesia - a new system called REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation).

The aim of REDD is to compensate regions that provide valuable ecosystem services, which has particular significance in developing nations. The majority or the world’s remaining tropical forest is located in developing countries like Indonesia, Brazil, Costa Rica and the Democratic Republic of Congo. These nations often have no option but to exploit their forest resources if they want their economies to remain stable and grow. Under a scheme like REDD, developing nations would be paid for providing the ecosystem services that we all require.

Ultimately, REDD’s conservation of forests is a by-product of the real motivation: profit. Carbon traders investing in ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration are hoping to reap the rewards of the rising value of the forest, offsetting pollution against purification. For this reason, some conservationists regard carbon trading with skepticism.

But while this question is being debated, time is running out for standing forests. Irrespective of its palatability, the profit motive could be an effective way of saving the forest today, so we’re now seeing the beginning of market mechanisms for preserving the environment. Andrew Mitchell from Forests Now explains how the concept of valuing forests as an economic utility in an exclusive interview filmed for The Burning Season web site.

REDD was the hot topic of the 2007 UNFCCC (Kyoto Protocol) convention in Bali, as leaders and policymakers tried to address how a REDD infrastructure could be developed to protect the environment.

It is important that REDD is debated in the lead-up to the next major Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December. Many groups are advocating ways to improve its effectiveness to ensure it does not disadvantage indigenous people. Some groups oppose it outright.

Seeing the forest for the trees: How REDD could work:

NOW: Farmers in Indonesia often need to clear rainforest land to grow crops so they can make a living. Imagine one farmer with 100 acres of forested land. The forest is effectively in the way of the profitable crops the farmer wants to plant, so the farmer burns down the forest to plant the crops.

UNDER REDD: Scientists calculate the amount of carbon storage that the farmer’s 100 acres of forest is capable of. They may also assess the value of the other ecosystem services presented by the forest. Then, a carbon trading broker negotiates with a polluting factory, so the factory has to pay for polluting by giving money to the farmer (via the carbon traders, who get a percentage). The farmer gets paid handsomely to be a custodian of the forest, protecting a valuable resource instead of burning it down. The trees go on processing greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and into their trunks and roots through photosynthesis.

Meanwhile, that factory is still polluting. But under the Kyoto Protocol, (and its successor agreement from Copenhagen), the factory has agreed to reduce its emissions every year, finding new, cleaner alternative practices.

Fore more information, visit
http://www.globalcanopy.org
http://www.tropicalforestgroup.org
http://www.rainforestcoalition.org/eng/