World Bank fund to pay for protecting forests-Guyana mentioned

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56530870

World Bank fund to pay for protecting forests
-Guyana mentioned
Stabroek News, Saturday, October 13th 2007

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - A new fund being developed by the World Bank
would pay developing countries hundreds of millions of dollars for
protecting and replanting tropical forests, which store huge amounts of
carbon that causes climate change.

The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), announced by the World
Bank on Thursday, will be part of U.N. climate change negotiations in
Bali in December to shape a global agreement for when the Kyoto
Protocol expires in 2012.

"A lot will depend on what the global agreement will be, but we think
potentially this could yield a lot of money," Joelle Chassard, manager
of the World Bank's carbon finance unit, told Reuters in an interview.

Chassard said the new facility would provide financial incentives to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation.

Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which offers economic credits for replanting
destroyed forests but excludes intact standing tropical forests, the
World Bank facility could cover all tropical forests.

The facility has already attracted interest from more than a dozen
developing countries including Indonesia, Brazil and several in
Africa's Congo River basin. The bank expects to first test the
mechanism in three to five countries.

Deforestation contributes 20 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions,
more than all the world's cars, trucks, trains and airplanes combined.
Environmental groups say that protecting tropical forests from cutting
and burning is the most direct and fastest way to mitigate some of the
impact of climate change.

By creating economic value for tropical forests, the facility can help
developing countries such as Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Guyana, Suriname and others generate new revenue for poverty
alleviation while maintaining the natural benefits such as fresh water,
food and medicines that the forests provide local populations.

Chassard described the new facility as a research and development tool
to determine practical responses to the problem of deforestation. She
said the facility would test mechanisms that could encourage
governments to reduce deforestation.

Part of the testing involves providing participating countries with the
means to prove they are reducing rates of deforestation.

"It will involve a lot of work on the ground with countries to
establish both a physical and institutional infrastructure to
demonstrate that they actually avoid deforestation," she said.
"Countries will have to demonstrate that physically they have reduced
the rate of deforestation."

Such a task will not be easy, Chassard acknowledged. It will require
countries to determine the present state of their forests in order to
measure future deforestation rates, she said. In addition, they have to
establish the carbon content in forests where not all trees are equal
storehouses, she added.

"Countries will need to have the means to ensure they are managing the
rate of deforestation throughout the country. You don't want to
preserve forests in one part of the country when another region is
being cut significantly," she added.

The fund initially will have $300 million to finance emission
reductions and help prepare countries with the necessary tools to
monitor the forests.

The global carbon market grew to an estimated $30 billion last year,
three times more than in 2005. Carbon funds were created under the
Kyoto Protocol as a way to reduce carbon emissions by encouraging
governments and the private sector to offset their climate footprint by
purchasing carbon credits.