Tropical Forest Conservation and Adaptation to Climate Change

Armed with $4.5 billion in new funding pledges, world leaders are beginning to tackle a major contributor to climate change: deforestation.

In mid-March, representatives from more than 60 nations met in Paris for the International Conference on the Major Forest Basins to begin to develop a global plan to implement REDD — the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program. It was the first follow-up to the Copenhagen climate summit in late 2009, and the 10 countries leading the effort say they will have a REDD plan completed for the United Nations climate meeting in Mexico in December. Under the program, dubbed REDD-plus, developed countries would pay developing countries to protect their trees. If implemented, it could become a cornerstone of the international effort to save tropical rain forests and other woodlands that are now disappearing at an alarming rate.

But this type of conservation cooperation is not new to the U.S., or to Botswana. In October 2006, the governments of the United States of America and the Republic of Botswana signed the first Tropical Forest Conservation Agreement in Africa. The agreement combines debt relief worth $7.4 million with conservation worth $8.3 million when converted into a trust fund (TFCF). The Agreement culminated in the formation of a company called Forest Conservation Botswana (FCB) which is a non-profit making entity. The Government of the Republic of Botswana in 2007 established a special fund, known as the Tropical Forest Conservation Fund (TFCF). The purpose of the TFCF is to promote activities designed to conserve, maintain and restore the forests of Botswana, including such world famous areas as the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park region, in accordance with the terms of the Tropical Forest Conservation Agreement, the Forest Act and National Forest Policy.

This tropical forest conservation partnership between the United States and Botswana can serve as a model for international cooperation regarding climate change adaptation, particularly in light of the outcomes from last week's International Conference on Major Forest Basins in Paris.

Photo credit: http://www.forestconservation.co.bw/