Incentives to curb deforestation needed to counter climate change

14/12/2005

Noting that deforestation accounts for 25 percent of all man-made emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) FAO offered today to provide data and methods to countries attending the UN climate change conference in Montreal in order to explore ways to create financial incentives for reducing forest loss in the developing world. FAO's newest data on the role of forests in mitigating climate change contained in our recently released Global Forestry Resources Assessment (FRA 2005) provide a clear picture of the contribution that forests make to countering global warming -- and of how deforestation exacerbates the problem said Dieter Schoene of FAO's Forestry Department.