WASHINGTON - Cutting down tropical forests often makes people poorer, hurts endangered species and emits greenhouse gases, so perhaps rich countries could pay to help keep trees standing, the World Bank said on Monday.The global carbon markets, set up in response to the Kyoto Protocol and other carbon-limiting arrangements, could offer the way. The markets -- where polluters pay for allowances that let them exceed their limits on carbon emissions -- may be able to put a value on the carbon locked up in jungles and savannahs, according to the new report.
When carbon is stored in trees and other plants, it's not being emitted as the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which holds heat close to Earth and spurs global warming.
As it stands now, farmers and ranchers might clear an acre of prime rainforest to create a pasture worth $300, and in the process, release 500 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as the trees burn and rot, said Kenneth Chomitz, lead author of the World Bank report.
Meanwhile, the European Carbon Exchange on Friday paid about $15 a ton to offset carbon dioxide emissions, Chomitz said at a briefing.
"That means that Europeans are paying about $7,500 or $8,000 to avert the emission of the same amount of carbon dioxide that the rancher is releasing," he said. "In other words, the rancher is destroying a $7,500 asset to create one that's worth $300 ...
"Wouldn't it be great if we could get the farmer and the industrialist or utility owner sitting at the same table, figuring out how they can split the difference and make themselves both better off?" Chomitz said.
LAND RUSH
The Kyoto Protocol, meant to stem global warming, allows member countries facing emissions targets to meet their goals by funding emissions cuts elsewhere.
Costa Rica and Papua New Guinea have already asked the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to examine options to offer incentives to countries to avoid deforestation through forest carbon, the report said.
The World Bank, which finances development projects, examined the impact of deforestation in part because 800 million people live in or around tropical forests and depend on them for their livelihood, said Francois Bourguignon, the bank's chief economist.
Bourguignon noted that while there is compensation under global protocols for planting trees, there is at present none for keeping existing forests standing.
Deforestation produces twice the carbon dioxide emissions of the world's car and truck fleet and contributes to global warming and a host of local ills including smog and stream pollution, Chomitz said.
One challenge to using the global carbon market to stem deforestation is the need to avert disorderly land rushes and timber grabs, he said. Land speculators might swarm to forest areas if they anticipate profits from carbon trading.
Preserving the Amazon, the world's largest remaining tropical rainforest, will be on the agenda at a round of global climate talks next month in Nairobi. Brazil wants international support to help preserve the huge rainforest.
However, Brazil last week rejected a foreign proposal to buy and preserve land in the Amazon and asked environmentalist and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore to support a home-grown rainforest-protection plan.