Forests working for the global climate - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD)
Carbon trading of credits from avoided deforestation could yield billions of dollars for tropical countries, according to an analysis by Rhett A.Butler, founder and editor from mongabay.com, a leading tropical forest web site. The proposed mechanism - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD) - will enable these countries to maintain their forests as a global resource. Using conservative estimates on carbon storage in tropical forests for the 17 developing countries in the figure, a reduction in the annual deforestation by 10% would generate more than USD 600 million per year with carbon prices at 5 USD per tonne. A higher estimate on the carbon prices, at USD 30 per tonne, would generate USD 2500 million in income from the proposed programme. Due to differences in the forest composition and climate, the carbon content can differ greatly - rainforests in French Guiana has an estimate of 5 times as much carbon content compared to the forests of Indonesia.
Year: 2008
From collection: Environment and Poverty Times #5: Pro-poor growth issue
Cartographer: Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal