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At the COP15 climate summit in Copenhagen in December 2009, a group spearheaded by Brazil's President Inacio Lula da Silva succeeded in focusing attention on the possibility of cutting CO2 levels by rewarding countries that preserve forests with carbon credits that can then be sold for cash on the global carbon market, whereby they hoped to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation. The initiative adopted the acronym REDD.
Deforestation is the second largest contributor to global warming after burning of fossil fuels. Tropical forest helps contain roughly 25 percent of all carbon in the terrestrial biosphere. Every year 30 million acres approximately the size of Nicaragua—is lost because of poverty, population growth, the need for food and agricultural land. Stopping deforestation and planting more trees creates a double cooling effect by reducing carbon emissions and also tying up more CO2 in the plants.
During 2010 Lula and his REDD partners have raised almost $1 billion to save the rainforest. At a meeting in the Norwegian capital Oslo in May they promised to show results before this month's COP16 in Cancun, a promise they didn't keep.
Colombia, host to almost 10 percent of the Amazon rainforest, joined REDD in September, becoming one of the latest partners. As a new partner Colombia will not receive any money--funding is restricted to REDD's nine pilot countries--but the country will participate in REDD's network and knowledge sharing including workshops in DC. I'm meeting Colombian journalist Lorenzo Morales here to see how and if the country's economy is influenced by the new partnership, and what other factors are in play when this Third World country, which hosts some of the largest untouched ecological areas in the world, begins to climb the economic ladder.