It is horrifying to think of the millions of hectares of rainforest and biodiversity that have been lost over the past years, with no mechanism in the Kyoto Protocol, “the only game in town” to protect them.

At the recent meeting of the Major Economies in Japan, the leaders of Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States acknowledged that “climate change is one of the great global challenges of our time”:
http://www.g8summit.go.jp/eng/doc/doc080709_10_en.html

Point 6 of the Leaders’ Declaration noted:
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We recognize that actions to reduce emissions, including from deforestation and forest degradation, and to increase removals by sinks in the land use, land use change, and forestry sector, including cooperation on tackling forest fires, can make a contribution to stabilizing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These actions also reduce climate change impacts and can have significant co-benefits by maintaining multiple economic goods and ecological services. Our nations will continue to cooperate on capacity-building and demonstration activities; on innovative solutions, including financing, to reduce emissions and increase removals by sinks; and on methodological issues. We also stress the need to improve forest-related governance and cooperative actions at all levels
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It is great that these world leaders have formally acknowledged the importance of addressing the problem of deforestation and forest degradation.
Taking decisive action now is critical, particularly during the period 2008 – 2012 while forests remain vulnerable and unprotected by the flawed Kyoto Protocol, which deliberately excluded protection for forests due to its narrow focus on fossil fuel emissions.

It would be very effective if a formal alliance of world leaders could be established to cooperate and develop an urgent strategic plan to address the problem of global deforestation, particularly for the critical period 2008 – 2012. For example Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg and Germany’s Angela Merkel have already demonstrated leadership in this regard by donating substantial funds for avoided deforestation.

I hope world leaders will be able to provide a progress report on their practical and effective actions to reduce global deforestation at the crucial UN climate change meeting in Copenhagen in 2009.