A new study by one of the world's leading forestry research institutes warns Friday that the new push to "reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation ( REDD)" is imperiled by a routine failure to grasp the root causes of deforestation.

the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), a leading international forestry research organization, said that the study, based on more than a decade of in-depth research on the forces driving deforestation worldwide, found that there is ample opportunity to reduce carbon emissions if financial incentives will be sufficient enough to flip political and economic realities that cause deforestation.

The study by researchers at CIFOR sought to link the underlying causes of loss of 13 million hectares of forest each year to the promise -- and potential pitfalls -- of REDD schemes.

The report was released Friday at the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP-13) in Bali, a resort island of Indonesia, where environment ministers from over 180 countries are meeting to draw up a long-term strategy for combating global warming.

High on the agenda is reducing the 1.6 billion tons of carbon emissions caused each year by deforestation, which amounts to one- fifth of global carbon emissions and more than the combined total contributed by the world's energy-intensive transport sectors.

"After being left out of the Kyoto Protocol agreement, it's promising that deforestation is commanding center-stage at the Bali climate talks," said CIFOR's Director General Frances Seymour. "But the danger is that policy-makers will fail to appreciate that forest destruction is caused by an incredibly wide variety of political, economic and other factors that originate outside the forestry sector, and require different solutions."

(Xinhua News Agency December 8, 2007)
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