Seeing the Forest for the Trees

Scientists estimate that protecting and restoring forests could provide approximately 15 percent of what is needed to stabilize the climate by 2050. Having worked to protect forests for more than fifty years, The Nature Conservancy is playing a direct role in this part of the climate solution.

For example, third-party scientists rigorously analyzed a flagship Conservancy project to prevent deforestation in and around Bolivia’s Noel Kempff Mercado National Park. The analysis concluded that had the forest been cleared between 1997 and 2005, more than 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide would have been released into the atmosphere — equal to the emissions of about 15,000 cars over ten years. The study also accounted for possible “leakage” — emissions that would have resulted if logging had shifted to areas outside the project’s boundaries.

For more than a decade, the Conservancy has been a leader in establishing such measures for reducing carbon emissions through forest conservation. Building on long-standing techniques to inventory forests and monitor forest ecology, combined with newer technologies, such as the use of satellite imagery to gauge rates of deforestation, the Conservancy relies on credible — and appropriately conservative — estimates of forests’ abilities to store carbon.

But such rigorous project-by-project analyses can be time-consuming and costly. The Conservancy and others are now working to demonstrate the viability of policies called for by some tropical countries to create incentives for reducing deforestation at the national level. Countries would earn credit for carbon storage relative to past emissions, similar to credits awarded under the Kyoto Protocol for lowering emissions from fossil fuels. By selling credits, developing countries could generate revenue to support sustainable development, combat rural poverty and protect biodiversity and the climate.