INTRO: Forests play an invaluable roll in curbing green house gas emissions, yet their contribution is not recognized in the Kyoto Protocol, which sets limits for these emissions. Some leaders in the developing world are hoping to change that. When Kyoto is replaced in 2012 with the Copenhagen Protocol they would like a provision included that compensates them for the work their forests are doing to keep the planet green.
UN Radio's Marsha Branch has more.
Cutting deforestation rates by twenty-five percent globally will save three million hectares of tropical rainforest and prevent seven giga tones of Carbon from entering the atmosphere annually.
But how much will it cost us? Well, aside from the obvious environmental benefits, the financial bill will be a mere 1.5 cents per day, per person in industrialized countries.
It's the sales pitch leaders of developing countries here at the UN General Assembly are hoping will get industrialized states to sign on to their REDD programme.
The REDD Initiative is a mechanism for compensating countries for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, but it requires funding.
Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo says it's the most efficient and inexpensive way to curb carbon emissions.
"Preserving forests can deliver almost immediate results, unlike some of the solutions that are being offered. Carbon caption storage will take time to develop. Renewable energy will take time to develop at scale and deploy."
In spite of this recognition however, adequate financing is not available for REDD and it is not getting the required attention from developed states to ensure its inclusion in the upcoming Copenhagen agreement on Climate Change in December.
Papua New Guinea is also seeking REDD funding and Prime Minister Michael Somare says it's time developed states step up to the plate.
"Our people live in the rural areas and they need to have an income to pay for their schools, to pay for their health services, to pay for their infrastructural development, the only means that they can get the money into their respective countries is by felling of forests. Now if the world wants us to conserve on their behalf, then they have to come good with this financial support for the developing countries."
Representatives from one hundred and seventy countries will be in Copenhagen for the climate conference commencing December sixth. It will end with a Copenhagen Protocol to prevent global warming and climate changes. This will replace the current Kyoto Protocol which ends in 2012.
Developing states are hoping to drum up enough support for REDD before the conference to ensure its inclusion in the new protocol.
Marsha Branch, United Nations Radio
Duration: 2'23"