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Delegates at the Copenhagen summit cannot afford to leave the world's rainforests outside of a global climate agreement, says Daniel Murdiyarso. In this week's Green Room, he sets out how plans to make the vital ecosystems worth more alive than dead are developing.
There is a growing realisation that the world's tropical and sub-tropical forests need to become an integral part of the new global climate regime.
But why is it so important that it plays a role in the international effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions?
When the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997, it failed to recognise the vast amount of carbon locked in the vital ecosystems.
This meant that the opportunity for developing countries with rainforests to participate in the international treaty were lost.
Five years later, when the Marrakesh Accord was adopted, a tiny amount of forest sector was accepted under the Kyoto mechanism, known as A/R CDM ...