Because deforestation produces as much as 20 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, forest conservation and restoration must play a meaningful role in any successful effort to avoid dangerous climate change.

While direct conservation efforts make a substantial contribution, much more needs to be done to curb the impact that deforestation has on climate change.

Currently, countries have few incentives for preserving their forests. With no price put on the value of the carbon stored in trees, forests are considered more valuable for timber, cropland, or pasture.

Current international policy, including the Kyoto Protocol, does not recognize the protection of forests as a source for carbon emission reductions. So while manufacturers in developed nations can win financial support for lowering their industrial carbon emissions, developing nations cannot receive credits for reducing heat-trapping gases from one of their biggest sources: deforestation.

The Conservancy works to mobilize governments to enact legislation that lowers emissions from all sources – including deforestation – and that addresses the threats climate change poses to the lands and waters on which we all depend.

The Conservancy also works at the site-level to create forest carbon projects that can serve as models for national-level approaches to protect forests, reduce emissions and compensate governments and communities for their forest emission reductions.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Scott Warren (deforestation in Brazil's Cantareira system); Photo © mark Godfrey/TMC (Conservancy staff in a sustainably managed forest).