Climate talks recognise the important role of forests

	Forests have a vital role to play in tackling climate change - Ern Mainka

The two-week long meeting of the UN Climate Conference in Bali has concluded with a commitment to include emissions from forests in the formal negotiations to extend the Kyoto Protocol.

The loss of forests, particularly in tropical countries, is believed to contribute approximately 20 per cent of the world’s carbon pollution. So, to avoid the worst impacts of human-induced climate change, reducing emissions from deforestation has a key role to play.

The Wilderness Society staff joined many other environment and aid groups from around the world at the talks in Bali, to encourage developing countries to agree to efforts to curb deforestation and to encourage developed nations to commit the necessary funds.

These groups, under the umbrella of the Climate Action Network, are calling for forest emission reduction policies and mechanisms which operate at the national level, consider forest degradation (eg logging), protect the rights of and provide benefits for indigenous and local forest communities, and support other plans such as protecting biodiversity. Any such mechanism must be accompanied by deeper cuts in fossil fuel emissions by developed countries after 2012.

Deforestation in developing countries will now be a formal part of the negotiations. However, there is still a long and complex process ahead before we see deforestation effectively addressed. Substantial resources for capacity building including effective monitoring and measurement will be needed from developed countries. As well as curbing loss of forests in countries like Brazil and Indonesia which have very high rates of clearing, provision must be made for countries with lots of forest cover and low deforestation rates such as the Congo Basin countries, to ensure the destruction does not simply move from one country to another.

Also agreed to in Bali was a review of the rules abut how industrial countries account for their land use activities including forests under the Kyoto Protocol. This will be crucial to ensure the carbon pollution from Australia’s forestry activities is counted.

Find out more information about green carbon

Click here for a scorecard on the overall climate negotiations and how Australia’s delegation performed (pdf)