KEY POINTS:
Protecting tropical rainforests, which soak up vast amounts of greenhouse gases, is proving a real headache at United Nations-led climate talks in Bali, where delegates are trying to sort out a pay-and-preserve scheme.
Scientists say deforestation in the tropics is responsible for about 20 per cent of all man-made carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming. Halting the destruction is widely regarded as a crucial part of any new climate pact.
Under a scheme called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD), developing nations could earn billions of dollars through carbon trading by simply leaving forests such as in the Amazon and Congo basins.
"I do think we will see deforestation in the agenda for the future [negotiations]. The focus here is pilot projects and more methodological work," said Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat.
Curbing deforestation has become a top issue for the thousands of delegates at Bali because the Kyoto Protocol does not include schemes that reward developing nations to preserve tropical rainforests.
The UN hopes the two-week conference will agree to include a REDD scheme in negotiations to work out a broader climate pact by 2009 to replace or expand the Kyoto Protocol, whose first phase ends in 2012.
The problem, though, is finding a scheme that fits all developing nations, said Hans Verolme of conservation group WWF.
"My instinct is there will be an agreement on a phased approach where we will start with some countries that are more ready than others," he said.
Nations also needed to sort out the type of compensation scheme, such as a market-based carbon scheme, a fund-based scheme or a blend.
To help nations prepare, the Bali meeting is expected to launch a series of pilot projects, which have not been finalised. At its simplest, the idea is to issue carbon credits to qualifying developing nations and rich nations buy these credits to offset their emissions at home. It's a system that rewards poor nations for keeping forests that might otherwise be cleared for their hardwood or vast plantations for biofuels or timber to feed global demand for pulp and paper.
Delegates are still sorting out how to monitor the world's remaining rainforests, ensure a halt in logging in one area or country doesn't shift the problem elsewhere, and work out the amount of carbon that can be saved from a particular forest and the historical rate of deforestation.
But by far the biggest issue is compliance. "The most difficult thing is how to ensure that within the institutions and governance of some of these countries that things are going to truly happen and that in the long run those things will not be undone," said Pep Canadell, executive officer of the Global Carbon Project.
He said total emissions from deforestation over the past seven years from Southeast Asia had risen while those from the Amazon basin, described as the lungs of the earth, had fallen.
Indonesia, which is losing vast areas of forest every year, is keen to earn money from saving what's left and some provinces have already signed agreements with international carbon investment companies.
A Brazilian delegate said her Government did not believe in market-based mechanisms to limit deforestation unless rich nations agreed to make major emissions cuts at home.
Canadell, from Australia's state-backed research body CSIRO, said rich nations needed to curb their appetite for tropical timbers.
SAVING RAINFORESTS
* The destruction of tropical rainforests is responsible for about 20 per cent of global warming.
* The Bali conference is trying to find a way to pay poor countries to keep their forests.
* The biggest problem will be making sure the new rules are followed.
- Reuters
