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New rules establish market for saving rainforests through carbon trading

› Posted November 18, 2008, by Rhett Butler, mongabay.com

A new carbon accounting standard will bolster efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from deforestation, thereby creating a financial incentive for saving rainforests, say backers of the initiative, known as the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS).

....The standard may help usher in a new era of "avoided deforestation" projects which capitalize on the carbon sequestration capacity of forests. Deforestation presently accounts for 15-20 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions — more than the global transportation sector....

Chart based on net deforestation rates from 2000-2005 and average above-ground biomass according to U.N. FAO data. Note that FAO data is controversial and does not account for emissions from drainage and conversion of peatlands or other land-use change, factors that would significantly boost Indonesia's carbon emissions. It is generally accepted that Indonesia's emissions from land-use change exceed those of Brazil, which may be over-estimated using raw FAO data.

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