An ingenious forest-protection proposal has grown out of the ongoing U.N. climate change summit, according to a BBC article: Papua New Guinea officials suggested that developing countries should reap financial rewards in return for prohibiting their industries from razing forests – an idea that is long overdue. Preserving foliage-rich wilderness is a lynchpin of the global-warming solution: Trees create natural carbon sinks that breathe in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, and release oxygen.

Currently the Kyoto Protocol does not include any program that offers credits for countries that prevent deforestation – even though credits can be reaped for the replanting of stripped areas and cultivation of new forests. According to Kevin Conrad, director of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, providing incentives for forest preservation is a must: “If you include deforestation from just Indonesia and Brazil alone, the carbon emissions from those two countries basically offset 80% of all carbon emissions savings which come from the Kyoto Protocol. Throw in a few more countries, and the Kyoto Protocol is not achieving much at all.”

Photo credit: BBC.co.uk