SINGAPORE — Can the world's remaining tropical forests in Indonesia and elsewhere be protected and brought into the battle against climate change? Working out ways of halting or slowing the cutting of forests for valuable timber and agriculture is now being discussed at U.N. climate change negotiations taking place in Poznan, Poland, through Friday.
Trees soak up and store carbon dioxide when they grow and release it when they rot or are burned. Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas blamed by many scientists for warming the planet. Deforestation contributes about 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, and most of it occurs in forest-rich developing nations in Africa, Southeast Asia and South America. So any international deal to preserve forests is of critical interest both to these regions and the wider world.
The talks in Poznan are part of a process that began in Bali, Indonesia, a year ago to try to reach agreement on a new climate change control treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. Under the Kyoto pact to limit emissions, all developed economies, except the United States, have agreed to cut greenhouse gases by an average of 5 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.