Redwood Reader

131. Papua-New Guinea asks for compensation for forest preservation and Emissions Reductions
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/4557541.stm
Roland Pease, BBC Science reporter in Bonn
An assembly of nations met under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to plan greenhouse gas reductions after the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012. The normal debates between developing nations and industrial nations was rudely awakened by Redwood Readers own idea presented by Papua-New Guinea, third largest tropical rainforest in the world, pay to preserve forest lands that are working as systems. They arrived at the same conclusion we have, although they would definitely benefit from an understanding of glomalin, because the amount of carbon stored in the ground is discounted and all the carbon is figured to be in the wood. Also, ground disturbance is briefly mentioned as a source of rising emissions, an admission difficult to find in print anywhere.
Native people are able to intuitively sense destruction it takes an electron microscope to see and a laboratory to detect although the results of that are the impacts clearly seen in the landscape and sediment mobility.
“Its position comes down, in part, to the success of the carbon emissions trading scheme launched in Europe earlier this year. A tonne of carbon saved from the atmosphere now comes with a price tag - and Papua New Guinea argues that its rainforest carbon is as good as any coal or oil burnt in the West.
"A tonne is a tonne is a tonne," declared the Papuan ambassador to the UN. But at the moment, there is no way developing countries can trade avoided rainforest destruction on the international market. What is more, the burned wood and degraded land left behind becomes a source of additional greenhouse gases. In the past, however, the complexity of quantifying the amount of rainforest destruction, let alone any change in the rate of destruction, led to the issue being sidelined under the Kyoto Protocol. There may be reluctance to re-open an issue that has been extensively debated in the past. But the Papuans say the response has been strong, and they believe many other rainforest countries are interested in the scheme.”
The representatives from Papua-New Guinea say there won’t be any rainforest to save after 2012, when the Kyoto agreement expires. The article reports a quarter of greenhouse emissions are from deforestation.
Well, here is where U. S. science can step up to the plate and deliver on sustainability. Glomalin research is exactly what the Papua-New Guinea people are talking about. We know we can quantify glomalin production to get a real picture of carbon sequestration with results in tonnage (tonne 2200 lbs, ton 2000 lbs US). One previous post included numbers on the range of 25-45 pounds per tree per year, although this would depend on species, age and physiological traits of that particular system. Still, this is the very Carbon Credit scheme I have called for in the beginning. The need is the same- forested land not scheduled for logging is usually represented as underdeveloped. The tax burden of ownership becomes onerous for people who don’t want to cut their trees, and nobody is compensated for keeping them in natural order as functioning systems that provide clean air, clean year round water, wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities, all public good benefits. There is no income flow to do maintence or improvement projects.
We hope to see this scheme gain a global following that will lead the world into sustainability based on science and not subject to the pressure of the dollar.