What is a forest?
This simple question is among a few key issues of debate that have paralyzed the Japanese government and delayed submission of its proposal on how forests should be incorporated into global warming measures to be decided in November.
Late Tuesday night -- a week past the initial Aug. 1 deadline -- the government announced it had sent its proposal on the handling of "sinks" -- carbon dioxide-absorbing ecosystems such as forests -- to the U.N. climate change secretariat in Bonn.