Forest can breach the global carbon gap(2)

Capitalism, and particularly the neoliberal version of capitalism, created the multiple crisis we now face, and it is unrealistic to believe it will also be the solution, said Büscher, who has spent more than a decade working in Africa.

"REDD is a new kind of colonialism. The real changes that urgently need to be made are in the rich countries," he stressed.

Rich countries need to make major reductions in their energy and material consumption but "we're not willing to do so," Büscher noted.

Europeans have widely protested a proposal to build a road through Tanzania's Serengeti National Park. China wants to build the road to mine rare earth metals for use in electronics like mobile phones.

"Who in Europe wants to give up buying the latest smart phone?" Büscher asked.

Maginnis insists that REDD is not an excuse for rich countries to do nothing, but just the opposite: rich countries need to make major emissions cuts and ante up a lot of cash to conserve forests and grow new ones.

"We have to get REDD right and that excludes unfettered, market-based versions. It also means ensuring proper land tenure and rights for local people,” he said.

Deforestation is usually the result of economic pressures imposed from outside the forests, so not dealing with those dooms efforts to conserve forests and slow climate change, concluded a study involving 60 of the world's top experts on forest governance, “Embracing Complexity: Meeting the Challenges of International Forest Governance. A global assessment report", released in January.

REDD promises to mobilize a great deal of money for conservation to resist those outside economic pressures, but good governance is needed to make sure forests are actually protected on the ground, said Jeremy Rayner, chair of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), which conducted the study.

Even REDD+ programs continue to "explicitly value carbon storage above the improvement of forest conditions and livelihoods," the report concluded.

There is urgency to protect forests, but REDD+ is not the one-size-fits-all solution, Rayner said. "Governance in most regions is not strong enough to handle implementation of REDD.”

Many approaches are needed and market-based systems could have a role in some places, whereas fund-based initiatives would work much better in other areas, he said.

Significant problems remain about how to value forests. Nor is there consensus on what a forest is. "Some argue that an oil palm plantation is a forest because it sequesters carbon," he explained.

"Right now we must experiment and try different mechanisms in an open and transparent manner to learn what works and where," Rayner concluded.