In the run-up to December’s Copenhagen climate talks, many experts hoped for a deal that would compensate Latin American nations and other developing countries for preserving their forests. Their argument: such a program could slow deforestation, a major driver of world greenhouse emissions.

No small number of conservationists agreed. They contend that if Latin America were to receive funding for projects aimed at preventing unsustainable logging and the conversion of forests into cropland and pasture, biodiversity in such areas as the Amazon, the Atlantic Forest and the Chocó might be saved.

Ultimately, Copenhagen negotiators failed to approve the program known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (Redd) as part of a legally binding climate agreement. But they did make progress.

In what was otherwise described as a bungled attempt to shape a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol after 2012, negotiators defined the basic outlines of how a global Redd system would work and laid a base for strong expansion of avoided-deforestation endeavors. They also boosted funding for forestry initiatives dramatically.


Approval next year?