Symposium

Title of Session: Can Climate Policies Help Save the Biodiversity of Tropical Forests?

Organizer: Union of Concerned Scientists, Peter Frumhoff

Session Goals:
• Describe the potential for emerging US and international climate policies to motivate substantial reductions in tropical deforestation;
• Assess the increase in funding for biodiversity conservation that could come from climate policies that include programs to reduce deforestation and its associated emissions;
• Describe the current tropical forest provisions of US and international climate policy negotiations, and key issues that remain to be addressed to meet both climate and biodiversity conservation goals.

Speakers:
Dr. Peter Frumhoff  , Union of Concerned Scientists (moderator) (PowerPoint)
Dr. Tom Lovejoy , Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment
Dr. Sandra Brown , Winrock International (PowerPoint)
Dr. Geoffrey Heal , Columbia University  (PowerPoint)

With the realization that about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions come from tropical deforestation, the possibility of combating global warming by reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries (REDD) has become a key element of negotiations for a global climate treaty to be signed in 2009. Domestic climate legislation in both the U.S. Senate and the House also includes REDD provisions, and could provide major increases in funding for programs that would protect tropical forests and in the process, conserve millions of species. This potential differs from past approaches to reducing tropical deforestation, many of which have had limited success, in implementing “pay for performance” under which crediting is done after deforestation rates are verifiably lowered and emissions reductions at the national level are measured through remote sensing. The possible funding, particularly through the world carbon market, is in the billions or tens of billions of dollars per year. Economic analyses show that this level of funding has the potential to reduce deforestation rates by half or two-thirds, at relatively low costs compared to the costs of making the same reductions in the energy-intensive sectors of industrialized countries. The biodiversity “co-benefits” of this approach to limiting the severity of climate change are very great, since tropical forests have the highest diversity of species of any biome on earth. Thus the implementation of REDD, although developed to deal with global warming, can mark an historic change in the course of the struggle to save the planet’s biodiversity. This symposium will present well-known experts on tropical deforestation and climate change, who will describe REDD and its potential, its implications for biodiversity, and the need to put it into practice in a way that insures benefits for both biodiversity and climate. They will also explain the international process in which REDD is being negotiated, its link to domestic legislation and to such controversies as the effect of biofuels on food prices and land use, and the differing perspectives of different countries on how REDD should done.

Resources:
Agenda: Can Climate Policies Save the Biodiversity of Tropical Forests?
Progress on Climate and REDD in the United States Congress
Estimating the Cost and Potential of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation
Filling the REDD Basket: Complementary Financing Approaches