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Cash for Trees
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Cash for Trees
Deforestation has never made it very far when countries sit down to talk emissions controls but Kevin Conrad, an investment banker by trade and now at Columbia University with the Rain Forest Coalition, is giving it another try. Craftily, proponents didn’t ask for a vote on the proposal but a referral to the scientific commission, for a report back to the Kyoto treaty nations.
“For developing nations to voluntarily reduce emissions is a slippery slope,” Conrad told me. India and China, “developing nations on paper but industrial in practice” aren’t finding much reason to back deforestation credits “but for the Congo or Bolivia, which is 90 percent rural, for them to have a revenue source which directly links to the forests is key.” The idea is getting some important friends, who have the heft to negotiate with the world’s top players. Brazil is a supporter, Conrad said. Tropical countries told delegates on Dec.1 that should earn cash for protecting trees, Alister Doyle reports.
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