Crucial conservation step agreed upon at conference
Crucial conservation step agreed upon at conference
New Delhi: Climate change talks in Poznan, Poland, reached a crucial agreement on conservation, afforestation and management of forests as a step in mitigating climate change on Wednesday.
“In principle, it has been agreed that replanting forests will be given equal credit as standing forests but it hasn’t been signed yet," a delegate from Poznan, who did not want to be identified, said over the phone. This move will clear a major obstacle towards including forest protection in a new global warming agreement post-2012. In the last Conference of Parties in Bali in 2007, Brazil and India had reached a deadlock in which conservation of forests was pitted against afforestation as a recipient of climate change funds. The G-77 (Group of 77 nations) demands that avoided deforestation and afforestation be compensated by developed countries for reducing climate change.
This development will have major implications on India’s ambitious plan of planting 6 million hectares of degraded land which may be eligible under the new criteria for a significant source of revenue.
(AP contributed to this story.)
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