Care required in slowing deforestation.

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has warned that new incentive schemes to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) must address the wider political and economic causes behind the problem.

The warning comes in a recent CIFOR report based on 10 years of research on the causes of deforestation worldwide. The report found that fluctuations in commodity prices, agricultural and biofuel subsidies, and roads and other infrastructure projects are often more important causes of deforestation than logging and slash-and-burn activities by local communities.

The annual loss of 13 million hectares of forests accounts for one-fifth of global carbon emissions and more than the combined total contributed by the world's energy-intensive transport sectors.

CIFOR Director General, Frances Seymour, said that Indonesia is losing 1.9 million hectares of forest a year, including carbon-rich peatlands, making it a leading source of carbon emissions. Forest-clearing is partly due to the global demand for palm oil and China's demand for wood pulp.

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In contrast, the loss of 4.3 million hectares of forest a year in South America is partly driven by the high demand for meat and pasture lands. In Ecuador, road building is a major cause of deforestation; while in sub-Saharan Africa, fuel-wood extraction and charcoal production contribute to the loss of 4 million hectares a year.

Seymour warned that after decades of inattention to the rights of forest dwellers, new payment streams tied to conservation could intensify the severe poverty that now afflicts most rural forest communities in the developing world.

'Since forest property rights are often unclear, payment for carbon services could end up providing incentives for corrupt officials or local elites to appropriate this new forest value from local communities; she said.

More information: CIFOR, www.cifor.cgiar.org