Rich countries to pay poor to stop logging

Updated December 13, 2010 21:26:00

The Cancun climate talks led to a deal on REDD to pay poor countries to stop logging their rainforests. The has been hailed by green groups for leaving carbon markets out, but there's still concern that while pockets of forests are protected, loggers will simply move elsewhere.

Source: PM | Duration: 4min 46sec

Topics: forests, climate-change, forestry, australia


MARK COLVIN: One of the key agreements from the Cancun climate summit is a deal to pay poor countries to stop chopping down their rainforests.

The agreement, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, known as REDD, was completed at the weekend.

It's still unclear where the funds will come from but some countries like Norway and Australia are already putting money into Indonesia to stop the destruction of rainforests.

Jennifer Macey reports.

JENNIFER MACEY: Some estimates have found that if deforestation was halted by 2020 it could save around two billion tonnes of CO2 and help limit global warming to less than two degrees.

Steve Campbell is the head of campaigns at Greenpeace.

STEVE CAMPBELL: Well currently deforestation globally accounts for about 20 per cent of global CO2 emissions which is greater than the entire transport sector around the world.

So if you add up all of the cars and buses and air planes and trains and ships, all of their emissions still don't add up to the amount of CO2 that's being produced from deforestation. So it's an enormous problem and it's one that really has to be fixed through the international climate negotiations.

JENNIFER MACEY: So stopping illegal logging and the legal clearing of forests for cattle farms and palm oil plantations was seen at the Cancun climate talks as a quick fix to tackle global warming.

Connie Hedegaard is the European climate commissioner.

CONNIE HEDEGAARD: As always at these talks it took a while. It took many hours, many efforts. But we succeeded in the end, getting a substantial deal done.

We took some further steps also here that we decided in Cancun on adaptation, on forestry and technology and finance, on a number of issues.

JENNIFER MACEY: The deal on REDD, or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, establishes a framework for rich countries to pay poor countries to stop logging.

One of the main sticking points was the possible inclusion of carbon markets to pay for forest protection but this has been left out.

Steve Campbell from Greenpeace again:

STEVE CAMPBELL: Well the key elements of the REDD package is well first of all they've agreed one which is very good. The mechanism itself could be a major step forward for forests.

But the devil is really going to be in the detail. So the agreement has that the actions must be in accordance with safeguards for Indigenous people and biodiversity. It includes that the forests won't be included in the carbon markets which is a good thing.

JENNIFER MACEY: The deal also offers Indigenous groups some limited protection that they'll have access to the forests for cultural or traditional purposes.

Ben Powless is from the Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change.

He welcomes the deal but says the language on safeguarding Indigenous peoples' rights is weak.

BEN POWLESS: That still maintains the possibility to privatise a large part of our natural resources, our lands and territories. And really the ones who would suffer from that would be Indigenous communities as well as biodiversity.

And so, you know, what we're pushing for here is that the carbon market system be rejected as an implementation of this system and that Indigenous peoples' rights be strongly protected as well as a strong system of monitoring and compliance with safeguards that would protect those rights.

JENNIFER MACEY: This past year has seen $4.5 billion pledged towards forest conservation projects in poor countries. Norway alone gave $1 billion to Indonesia to stop deforestation there.

But Steve Campbell from Greenpeace says there's a danger that pockets of forests will be protected while the logging companies simply move elsewhere.

STEVE CAMPBELL: It also on the bad side though allows actions to happen at the project of sub-national level which is not a good thing because it means that logging companies can just move their operations around a country if they so choose.

JENNIFER MACEY: The other big concern by environment groups is that rich nations will use the forest deal to offset their own emissions.

STEVE CAMPBELL: No, there's no clarity on that because there's a great deal of ambiguity still in the content of the agreement. And this is some of the things that will be thrashed out over the next year.

Australia for instance has the intention to offset as much of its industrial emissions as it possibly can on forests in developing countries. And Greenpeace thinks that Australia needs to limit that, the amount of offsets that it can take.

Other industrialised countries would be seeking to do the same thing. And this still hasn't been fully agreed yet about how much offsetting any nation state can do.

JENNIFER MACEY: The details of the REDD agreement will be worked on during 2011 and finalised at next year's climate conference.

MARK COLVIN: Jennifer Macey.