Delegates at a global UN meeting in Nagoya, Japan to preserve natural resources tried Tuesday to agree on ways to deploy about 4 billion US dollar in cash to help developing nations save tropical forests.
About 12 percent of the world’s forests are designated primarily to conserve biological diversity (mangfoldigheden af dyr og planter), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FA) said in report earlier this month.
Ministers are focusing on a voluntary partnership covering nearly 70 nations aimed at boosting a UN-backed scheme that seeks to reward developing countries that preserve and restore forests.
The efforts, called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)-plus partnership, “could become a water-shed for humanity. For the first time, the world’s forests may have a fighting chance to survive”, said Papua New Guinea Foreign, Trade and Immigration Minister Samuel Tei Abal, who co-chairs the meeting.
REDD would enable credits for the carbon stored in forests in developing countries to be traded internationally so that the countries can spend more on forest conservation. Benefits likely to arise from such a mechanism include the conservation of forest biodiversity.
In related news, Greenpeace released a 16-page report outlining its concerns that Papua New Guinea is not ready for REDD. Greenpeace has criticized Papua New Guinea for being more interested in donor money than seriously tackling climate change.
“The Papua New Guinea government is hungry for international funding from REDD but has no plans to stop destroying its own rainforest or reduce its own emissions”, Greenpeace forest campaigner Sam Moko said Monday.
