COP15: A Glimmer of ‘Hopenhagen’ at Forest Day 3

Optimism was running high at the third Forest Day event in Copenhagen on Sunday, Dec. 13, where 1,500 people from around the world gathered to discuss the challenges and opportunities of including forests in an international climate change agreement.

“One hundred and twenty heads of state don’t come from all around the world to celebrate failure; they come to celebrate success,” affirmed Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN climate change conference, in summary of Forest Day 3.

Participants included staff from numerous NGOs, project developers, bureaucrats, ministers of the environment and other high-level forest policymakers from around the world.


Since registration was capped, those lucky enough to register early were rewarded with an excellent set of speakers, from Elinor Ostrom, recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, to Wangari Maathai, former Nobel Peace Prize winner for her work to initiate the Green Belt Movement in Kenya.

Most notable, however, was that for the first time since the start of COP 15, officials privy to the negotiations were speaking openly about the fact that they are close to an agreement on the basic structure of REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries). There are still two or three loose ends to tie up, including whether accounting will start at the national or sub-national level (e.g. states and provinces), and how private carbon markets will play into an eventual REDD framework.

Nonetheless, there has been major progress around the scope of the proposal, the need for safeguards -- especially to protect the rights of indigenous people -- and the general approach to Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV). The last few details, as well as the dollar amounts that developed countries are willing to commit to finance REDD, will need to be hashed out once the Ministers arrive on Monday.

But what does an international REDD agreement mean for the United States and how do our forests stand to benefit? We certainly wouldn’t qualify for international aid. However, even here in the United States approximately 1.5 million acres of forestland are converted to non-forest uses each year. One of the major ways that the United States could benefit is that once we have signed on to an international commitment to lower our greenhouse gas emissions, domestic forests are going to be a significant -- and very cost-effective -- way of achieving emissions reductions.

By funding forest conservation here at home, as well as abroad, the United States will be providing a homegrown solution to climate change that invests in our local communities while also benefiting our place in the global community.