As Forest Deal Nears, New Index Maps Profit Potential in Trees

One of the major developments likely to come out of the Copenhagen climate talks tomorrow is a global agreement to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation of forests (REDD). A new index, launched yesterday in Copenhagen, now provides policymakers and investors with information on which of the world’s regions will give them the most bang for their buck when selecting forests for conservation. “The Forest Carbon Index (FCI) estimates the potential of every square kilometer of terrestrial land to generate carbon credits by either avoiding deforestation or by growing new forests,” said Erin Madeira, one of the architects of the project at Resources for the Future (RFF), a non-profit environmental organization in Washington, D.C. It maps out one-and-a-half-million grid squares, each 85.5 square kilometers in size. By compensating developing nations for not cutting down these trees, wealthy nations could cover many billions of tons of their required reduction in carbon emissions by 2020. The Index could help nations focus these efforts. It involves 20 geodatasets on national scales and six on subnational scales. These were mapped out each nation’s potential to attract foreign investment in its forests, based on possible profits and risks...read more

Progress is being made: the socialists are now interested in "profit potential". Of course it's governments that will profit, not some nasty capitalist.