Global warming caused by rapid deforestation could be curbed if developing countries were paid the proper rewards for maintaining their woodland, a World Bank study has said.
The report noted that the world's forests are disappearing at a rate of 5% a decade as woodland is cleared for timber and production of in-demand commodities like beef, coffee and soybeans.
But the land would have far more value if the forests were preserved and developing countries were then rewarded on global carbon markets.
Such markets are an offshoot of the Kyoto agreement against global warming, letting countries that struggle to meet targets for industrial emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) pay other countries that keep their own emissions down.
About a fifth of global CO2 emissions come from tropical deforestation but these have not been harnessed into carbon markets such as the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme, the report said. It said that in Latin America, dense jungle is often cleared to create pastures worth as little as 300 dollars a hectare while releasing 500 tonnes of CO2 per hectare.
This implies a "CO2 abatement cost" of less than one dollar a tonne. It was believed that tackling climate change requires paying about three dollars a tonne for CO2 abatement, while EU members are currently paying up to 20 dollars a tonne. "In other words, deforesters are destroying a carbon storage asset theoretically worth 1,500-10,000 dollars to create a pasture worth 200-500 dollars per hectare," the World Bank said.The Times of India
