Oil Palm Plantations, Replacing Standing Forests Presently the Marrakesh round of the Kyoto Accords do not allow avoided deforestation to be part of the CDM or Clean development mechanism. This makes it difficult to setup forestry preservation projects based on carbon offsets for standing trees.
We wonder how deforestation issues will be addressed at the Bali (CoP13) round. There have been signs over the past year that the science has come in and the weight assigned to tropical forests in climate stabilization will be increased.
Former Forests in Sumatra

We hope this includes an incorporation in the CDM but at a minimum new programs will have to take into account:1-The sizable contribution of greenhouse gas emissions from tropical deforestation2-The outsized role existing tropical forests play in climate stabilization 3-The irreplaceability of the ecosystems, they cannot be reconstructed from scratch and their destruction results in the rapid desertification of the denuded areas. 4-The reduction of bio-diversity in the areas home to the most uncatalogued new species on the planet.Projects enabling avoided deforestation credits have been very difficult to assemble under the current state of Kyoto. It extremely difficult to get a project underway which is not coupled with an actual reforestation scheme and even more difficult to securitize and monetize one under a longterm program.
Reasons to Invest in TreesA new World Bank Readiness mechanism will evaluate the potential the of 20 interested countries who participate to preserve their rainforest assets as well as beginning the process of auditing what is there through a combination of ground proofing and remote sensing. A prerequisite I presume will be the adjudication of existing land rights, titles and resource ownership as well as national bodies, NGO's or Trust's in charge of aggregating or administering large tracts of trees. The readiness mechanism or REDD will work as part of a vetting process to send likely candidates onto the next stage of the process, the Carbon Finance Mechanism. If the ownership, monitoring & management issues are taken care of these countries would receive payments. Possibly quite substantial for reducing emissions below agreed upon levels.These two mechanisms functioning together would help to realistically prototype new programs which verify both emissions reductions from avoided deforestaton and which would create the potential for new financial incentives and instruments to tackle deforestation and create an auditable system for accurately tracking them. The Readiness Mechanism will also work to create a verifiable trail of ownership for these resources. Whether organizations are state, indigenous, local, national, tribal, NGO, private or trusts who owns what and what its potential is will be known, verified and mapped as well as the circumstances on the ground and from the air permit.
Primeval Rainforest in ChiapasThis also opens up the better possibility for not only preserving forest resources but exploring them in depth for other types of sustainable use that can contribute to the financial stability of longterm maintenance trusts.These two programs will also protect ownership rights while liberating the CO2 offest potential for use in securities of recognized parameters. Many securities firms, the Goldman Sach's of the World and others have been trying to find a way to trade carbon offsets as a 'derivatives type' security. With a program established standard these contracts should become more easily auditable and tradeable thus less prone to financial and management hanky panky.
Less Creative Crafting of Carbon CreditsIt will help eliminate case by case contract creation which often takes place in 'extremely freewheeling' circumstances that are not easily verifiable or auditable. These standards which will create more tradeable contracts will help reduce the possibility of dis-intermediation of owners or trusts that function on a local or regional level who could find their ownership or property rights taken away at a higher governmental or ministerial level where the negotiations proceed directly with international securities buyers.

Individuals, organizations, trust or NGO's might find their rights taken away or 'sequestered' by an authority for resale. This is hopefully less likely to happen under the scrutiny of the two aforementioned mechanisms. In some countries with centralized management these rights were never likely to be given over at the local level anyway but others have spun off land management to a variety of sometimes constitutionally guaranteed local, indigenous or tribal authorities who might fight what they see as usurpation of the perogatives or divestiture of land rights.
The Bali RoundThe Good news is that the World Bank has started and appropriated the money for a Forest Carbon Partnership. This is under co-development by developing and industrialized countries It is expected to be approved at Bali and launched officially in 2008 at which time we would hear if avoided deforestation will make it into CDM and how the Readiness & Carbon Finance Mechanisms may be expanded. Particpants at a minimum would have arrive at a scientific estimate of their existing (or remaining) forested areas. As well as including detailed mapping and GIS information and provide:1-effective ownership, management and monitoring skills This referred to as the Readiness Mechanismm or REDD2-Evaluate pilot programs which preserve forests and reduce emissions.
Trees and Oceans, Movers of AtmosphereWhile REDD and CFM are a step towards mapping and understanding existing forest resources and the CFM provides a means for reducing emissions it stops short of supplying a complete financial motivation and mechanism. It is likely the balance of the funding for longterm preservation and expansion will come from private industry. Essentially the carbon offset markets which will then be able to mobilize the capital needed to support the expansion of these programs. Reasons Why:
Hurricanes
Indonesian Deforestation
More Information