Protection of forest could be one of the cheapest way to reduce global warming, therefore it has an important place at the Cancun climate change talks.
The REDD program ( Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) would provide poor countries with financial incentives to keep their remaining forest. Some problems that have come up during the talks about the REDD program are the following:
- How to ensure that if logging is stopped in one part of the forest it does not resume elsewhere
- How to define an area that has been degraded but could be restored
- How to monitor the vast tracts of trees
- Whether and how to allow some form of sustainable logging
- How to respect the rights of indigenous forest people
Already 6 billions dollars has been put toward the program of which 1 billion dollars has been provided by the United States. Unfortunately, its hard to be sure about the future funding of the program as it might be difficult to get the money needed from the private sector in the future. A large amount of money will be needed to make it worth it for poor countries to forgo the opportunity to exploit their forest.
For more information about the REDD program: http://www.un-redd.org/AboutREDD/tabid/582/Default.aspx
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