06/05/00 -- Climate Proposals Provide Incentives to Cut Down Old Growth Forests

***********************************************

WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Climate Proposals Provide Incentives to Cut Down Old Growth Forests

***********************************************

Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives

http://www.ClimateArk.org/ -- Climate Ark

06/05/00

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

Political maneuvering at the upcoming Bonn climate negotiations, and

decisions regarding definitions of carbon 'sinks', will impact

greatly on the World's remaining old growth forests, and will

determine whether meaningful and effective climate change policy

emerges any time soon. It is critical that policy that provides

incentives to convert old-growth forests into plantations on the

basis of their carbon absorption not be approved. There is much

scientific uncertainty regarding carbon sinks, including how trees

will react to increasing levels of carbon dioxide and how the world's

forests will be impacted by climate change. Old-growth forests are

simply too intrinsically and ecologically valuable to be needlessly

sacrificed in the absence of more systematic and meaningful policy.

Public policy must be promoted which pursues reductions in carbon and

other greenhouse gas emissions, energy conservation, alternative

energy sources and ending deforestation. Climate change will require

a major "Manhattan Project" sized scientific research effort to

develop safe and clean energy alternatives. The longer we wait, and

more we emphasize band-aid solutions such as promoting logging old-

growth to put in plantations, the more difficult the task, and more

uncertain our fate.

g.b.

*******************************

RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: Governments must begin closing Kyoto treaty loopholes

Proposals could provide incentives to chop down old growth

forests.

Source: WWF Press Release

Date: June 2, 2000

In the coming two weeks of climate negotiations in Bonn, governments

should act on new scientific conclusions and rule out the most extreme

and unreliable proposals for relying on forests and soils to soak up

global warming gases, WWF, the conservation organization, said today.

Leading contributors to global warming including the United States,

Canada and Japan favour relying as much as possible on trees, crops

and soils - known as 'sinks' - to absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

In this way they can avoid having to meet pollution targets that would

mean cutting emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants and cars.

But new research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

(IPCC), the foremost international expert group on climate change,

outlines the risks and uncertainties of the 'sinks' approach.

"The scientific uncertainties should warn governments to rely as

little as possible on forests to soak up carbon. Instead governments

should concentrate on tackling the root of the problem - carbon

dioxide emissions from smoke stacks and tailpipes," said Jennifer

Morgan, director of WWF's Climate Change Campaign. "Solving global

warming is only as complicated as governments want to make it."

Last month's IPCC report shows that accurately assessing how much

carbon can be claimed as being stored in vegetation and soils, or

released when forests are felled, is critically dependent on how

governments define 'deforestation', 'reforestation', and

'afforestation'. Many areas of scientific uncertainty remain,

including how increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

will impact the growth of trees. The IPCC is also unsure how carbon

uptake will change as the world's forests are themselves impacted by

climate change. It underlines WWF's message that temporary storage of

carbon in forests is no substitute for avoiding carbon pollution by

leaving coal, oil and gas in the ground.

WWF's top priority in Bonn is to persuade governments to drop

proposals that could provide incentives to chop down old growth

forests that are rich havens for nature, and replace them with forest

plantations or genetically-engineered fast-growing trees. WWF also

wants to see governments rapidly narrow their negotiating options in

order to finalize the operating rules for the Kyoto treaty at

November's climate summit.

"The Kyoto treaty will be virtually useless as a tool for reducing

emissions of global warming gases from the industrialized world unless

governments pull their most extreme proposals for get-out clauses from

the table," said Jennifer Morgan.

In Bonn, WWF will also be promoting its proposal for the treaty's

'Clean Development Mechanism' to give priority to making clean and

efficient energy technologies available to developing nations, in

place of nuclear power that is being supported by France, Canada and

Japan.

For more information:

Kyla Evans, Press Officer, WWF International. Tel: +41 22 364 9550

Jennifer Morgan, Director, WWF Climate Change Campaign. Tel: +1 201

873 0034 (mobile)

Notes to editors:

(1) Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry, Summary for Policymakers.

A Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,

Approved at the IPCC Plenary session, Montreal 1-8 May 2000.

###RELAYED TEXT ENDS###

This document is a PHOTOCOPY for educational, personal and non-

commercial use only. Recipients should seek permission from the

source for reprinting. All efforts are made to provide accurate,

timely pieces; though ultimate responsibility for verifying all

information rests with the reader. Check out our Gaia's Forest

Conservation Archives & Portal at URL= http://forests.org/

Networked by Forests.org, Inc., gbarry@forests.org