A Migration Plan for Forests?

Forests and other ecosystems will literally need to pick up and move as an adaptation strategy for climate change, according to new research coming out in tomorrow's edition of the journal Nature.

"How well particular species can survive rising worldwide temperatures attributed to excess levels of heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases emitted by human activity hinges on those species' ability to migrate or adapt in place," reports Reuters news service.

Last February National Geographic was already noting U.S. Forest Service reports of the northward migration of U.S. forests in response to climate change -- a woodland phenomena normally associated with the enchanted forests of Tolkein's "Lord of the Rings" saga (see below).

On the bright side: the new research suggests that flora and fauna in mountainous habitats -- including U.S. temperate forested regions -- will experience the slowest rates of climate change because they can track relatively large swings in temperature by moving just a short distance up or down slope.

But migrating up or down to adapt to a changing climate may not be that easy. As the article points out, "much of the world's forest habitats and grasslands already have been severely fragmented by development, making mitigation of climate change in those landscapes harder and leaving their species more vulnerable."

The Nature study provides yet more evidence that the United States needs comprehensive plans for mitigation of forest loss from land conversion and development if we want to reduce the associated greenhouse gas emissions that fuel global warming. Stewarding forests to make them more resilient and adaptive to warmer temperatures is also part of the solution -- and seems somewhat more practical than a massive forest migration plan (or intervention from Tolkein's tree-herding Ents).

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PFT Forest & Climate Presentations Branch Out

Outreach Crosses International Borders, Academic Disciplines and Economic Concerns

At the end of an active year, PFT staff is returning from the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen with a sense of hope and challenge. Forests are assuming a prominent role in climate policy and media, yet much work is needed to ensure forests continue to rise on international and national agendas. Educating landowners, foresters, policymakers, legislative staff and others on how forests can help solve the climate crisis remains a top priority.

PFT’s outreach efforts have spanned the United States and are influencing the international community in places as far as Chile, Argentina and Denmark. Most recently, PFT presented a poster at Copenhagen’s Forest Day event, which outlined the need for strong forest carbon accounting standards for the summit’s more than 1,500 participants.

Other speaking engagements have taken staff as far as Oregon, Wisconsin, Georgia, New Jersey and North Carolina. And news interviews with long reach include a forest and climate TV feature series set up by climate guru Al Gore's staff, which ran in regional markets around the United States over the summer.

Invitations for PFT to speak are indicative of the mounting interest in the climate role of forests and how landowners can be rewarded for conserving and stewarding this vital ecosystem service. The call for more information is coming from a diverse array of audiences, from local and regional government officials to investors to thought leaders like Gore, who referenced PFT President and co-founder Laurie Wayburn as a participant in one of the “Solutions Summits” that informed his new book, “Our Choice.”

Wayburn also has been a frequent speaker on university campuses this year, including Yale, Duke and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she delivered the 2009 Aldo Leopold Lecture, titled “Forests in the United States’ Climate Change Policy,” as part of a highly respected multi-disciplinary series focusing on natural resources.

As Wayburn explains the forest and carbon science from a policy perspective, PFT Managing Director and co-founder Connie Best has been demystifying the evolving forest carbon market for conservationists, forestland owners and managers and investors, leading a seminar for 50 conservation professionals at the Land Trust Alliance Rally and assembling a panel and presentation for 200 attendees at the October Who Will Own the Forest? timber investment conference at the World Forestry Center.

The scope of our outreach has grown even broader as universities and others stream PFT lectures and webinars over the Internet. Wayburn's recent contributions as an expert panelist at conferences sponsored by Yale and Duke Universities were posted to ITunes U. and the universities’ online archives.

Best’s presentations have gone online as well; she recently presented a three-hour webinar guide to the Climate Action Reserve Protocols as part of our work with the Carbon Canopy coalition and did a web presentation for a conference of USDA foresters titled "Douglas Fir Forests in the 21st Century: Changing Climate, Markets and Landscapes."

We've also produced several new reports and articles—many available online—including "The Role of Forests in U.S. Climate Policy" (Land Lines, Oct. 2009) for the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and an analysis of the Climate Action Reserve methodologies for increasing carbon sequestration from improved forest management projects. The latter was prepared for the Western Carbon Sequestration Partnership, a U.S. Department of Energy research consortium ("Demonstration of Conservation-based Forest Management to Sequester Carbon on the Bascom Pacific Forest," Oct. 2009)

In 2010, look for PFT’s contributions to publications about forests, conservation and climate change including forthcoming chapters from “Conservation Capital in the Americas: Exemplary Conservation Finance Initiatives” (Island Press, Jan. 24, 2010), and “Carbon Finance II: Investing in Forests for Climate Protection” (Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Publication Series, Yale University, Dec. 2009).

As President Obama declared in Copenhagen, we have the knowledge of what needs to happen— now it’s time for action. We’re looking forward to a new year when U.S. legislators will move toward adopting comprehensive policies for conserving our nation’s forests and their essential climate benefits.

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After Copenhagen: Time to 'Redouble Efforts' on U.S. Forest and Climate Policy Front

"If anything, Copenhagen illustrated that we need to redouble efforts here at home to advance climate legislation with strong provisions for conservation of forests and their climate benefits." — PFT President Laurie Wayburn

The Copenhagen climate summit might have ended without a legally binding agreement — and no small amount of resulting disappointment — but progress toward an agreement for forests provided some bright spots in the negotiations.

The New York Times, Time Magazine and Washington Post have reported delegates were close to agreement on a climate plan for forests created through a program called REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries).

Agreement on an international plan for forests would be a major milestone, says PFT Board Secretary Andrea Tuttle, an international forestry consultant who tracked the talks from Copenhagen with PFT Policy Project Manager Emily Russell-Roy. “Reducing carbon emissions from tropical deforestation is one of the most simple and effective ways to make headway on total emissions reductions, so there is strong focus on kick-starting a REDD program,” Tuttle says.

The U.N. plan for forests is stalled without an overarching, binding climate treaty. But growing consensus on international REDD is a hopeful sign and should spur domestic lawmakers to action, said PFT President Laurie Wayburn.

“If anything, Copenhagen illustrated that we need to redouble efforts here at home to advance climate legislation with strong provisions for conservation of forests and their climate benefits,” Wayburn says. “The United States can model how REDD works by walking the talk at home as well as abroad, by reducing forest loss, restoring forests and managing forests adaptively in the face of climate change.”

Once Tuttle and Russell-Roy return home they will be providing more details on the outcome of talks and where negotiations go from here. To read more of their on-the-ground observations from Denmark, visit http://www.forestsworkwonders.org/ and search for posts tagged "Copenhagen."

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COP15: 'Final Friday' Approaching

Unprecedented talks are underway in Copenhagen, where delegates from nearly 200 nations are negotiating a successor to the United Nations climate change treaty forged in Kyoto. International forestry consultant and PFT Board Secretary Andrea Tuttle, Ph.D. (pictured left), and PFT Policy Project Manager Emily Russell-Roy are blogging from the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) who signed the original climate treaty. See Tuttle's latest update below:

'Final Friday' Approaching

As negotiations intensify, forests have emerged as a front-runner issue in the climate talks. Wednesday’s International Herald Tribune headline blared: “Forestry deal could end up high point in Copenhagen.” Reducing carbon emissions from tropical deforestation is one of the most simple ways to make headway on total emissions, so there is strong focus on kick-starting a reduction program.

Yesterday’s announcement by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to pledge $1 billion to support “Prompt Start” actions in tropical forests is a big step toward securing a climate deal. This money – scheduled for distribution over the next three years – is part of a $3.5 billion package from Australia, France, Japan, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States to build capacity for REDD+ in developing countries.

Most tropical deforestation results from agricultural development (i.e. land cleared for soybeans, palm oil and cattle), so mitigating further destruction requires consideration of each country’s policies surrounding economic growth. We’re complicit because U.S. and European demand for biofuel from palm oil, soybeans for livestock feed, and meat for our hamburgers puts a higher value on farmland than on natural forests. New policies are needed to place crops in already-degraded lands and away from peat soil, and to improve cattle management. In the Brazilian Amazon, for example, the average cattle density is one head per hectare!

The negotiations are still in a state of flux, but rumors suggest a positive outcome for forests. The most recent REDD+ text outlining numerical goals, national versus sub-national approaches, and the role of private money is still being determined. Developing countries have raised questions about finance, transparency and trust between north and south. Last week, island-nation Tuvalu closed down the formal process on its repeated demand to replace the UNFCCC consensus process with a three-quarter vote. This week, Africa temporarily stopped action to draw attention to its need for more assistance. For example, cassava crops in Zambia are rotting faster due to higher temperatures and humidity, and better storage is needed for harvested crops.

With the arrival of Heads of State, security has tightened, forcing all NGOs out of the Bella Center and displacing events to other spaces downtown. Helicopters hover overhead and police sirens wail as security really ramps up. Big protests have closed trains and metros. A snowstorm also blew in yesterday, adding flurry to the bustling scene.

Inside the discussion rooms, PFT attended a late-afternoon panel on the role of forests in climate change. Wiley Barbour, formerly with the EPA and founder of Winrock and the American Carbon Registry, Eric Hauxhausen, head of the climate program for The Nature Conservancy, Rob Fowler, climate specialist for Booz and Company, and I shared good dialogue with a mostly European and business audience. I stressed the need to retain the integrity of the forest carbon credit as we move into a compliance market. “The quickest way to kill a cap-and-trade program is to use phony offsets.”

One challenge that Yvo de Boer, head of the UN climate change conference, cautions against is losing the hard-fought, nitty-gritty text in the final document when Heads of State get involved. But there must be a deal here somewhere. In these final days it’s an intricately timed dance of who makes what concession when. Final Friday is tomorrow. Hopefully the dominoes will start to fall fast – and in the right direction!

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COP15: The Good News (for Forests)

The contentious climate negotiations in Copenhagen have one bright spot: delegates are nearing an agreement on forests, reports the New York Times.

"The agreement for the [forest] program, if signed as expected, may turn out to be the most significant achievement to come out of the Copenhagen climate talks, providing a system through which countries can be paid for conserving disappearing natural assets based on their contribution to reducing emissions."

Read more about the tentative deal for forests in the Times article and check for updates from PFT's Andrea Tuttle and Emily Russell-Roy, who are blogging from the COP15 climate talks and tracking news relevant to forests.

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COP15 Field Trip: Learning from Denmark’s Forests

As part of Forest Day 3, the Danish Ministry of the Environment’s Forest and Nature Agency organized three full-day field trips to various sites around Denmark, culminating in a reception at the famous Kronborg Castle (also known as Elsinore in Shakespeare’s "Hamlet").

In our group alone there were people from Taiwan, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Germany, India, Sweden and the United States. It was refreshing to hear perspectives from all around the world, and also to get outside and stretch our legs after being inside a conference center (or standing in long lines) for the past few days. But the best part of the day was the lesson that Denmark’s forests had to teach.

Historically, the country was around 80 percent forested. Then about 200 years ago, Denmark experienced extensive deforestation from agriculture and industry—especially houses and ships—leaving a mere 3 percent of the country’s landscape in forest cover by 1800. Due to regulatory action and dedicated (as well as expensive) reforestation efforts, Denmark has slowly been able to grow its forest back to about 13 percent forest cover and would ultimately like to achieve 20 percent forest cover.

Our first stop on the field trip was the Jaegersborg Deer Park just 20 minutes north of Copenhagen where we saw one of the oldest plantations in Denmark that was planted in 1765.

Walking through the forests that have been replanted over Denmark’s long history, one can see evidence of forests’ incredible capacity to rebound – they truly are a renewable resource! The forest was full of large, open stands of enormous beech trees, some of which were more than 200 years old. These trees have obviously been able to reabsorb large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and provide a tangible climate benefit. In fact, because of their age, Denmark’s forests have some of the highest levels of carbon stocking in tonnes per hectare in the world.

However, as remarkable as this forest rebirth has been, it comes at significant cost.

Today, replanting a single hectare of forest in the Jaegersborg Deer Park can cost about 20,000 Euros or more, due to the expanding deer population for which the park was primarily established. Denmark is committed to achieving its reforestation target, primarily by reforesting land near urban areas that currently don’t enjoy easy access to open space.

However, this is the land that tends to be the most expensive to purchase, and -- due to its proximity to urban centers -- is likely be located in small, fragmented parcels. The country even has a subsidy system to pay landowners to undertake afforestation on their land. However, these projects are often very small, only around seven hectares on average.

This fragmentation undermines the continuity of the forested landscape and poses major challenges to the provision of ecosystem services such as water quality and wildlife habitat, and of more recent concern: the capacity for adaptation. One telling example of this is Denmark’s experience with Dutch Elm disease.

Like many places in Europe and North America, Denmark was hit extremely hard by the disease, which killed almost all of the Elms throughout the landscape. Luckily, the Danish government was able to find a few specimens of Elm that were resistant to the disease, and have been able to breed them for eventual replanting. However, in order to keep the species viable, the government must constantly go out in search of new trees to crossbreed, ideally that are already naturally adapted to the climate and environment of Denmark.

However, because of the limited and fragmented forest cover in Denmark, this has been exceedingly hard, and poses a future challenge for Elms, as well as all tree species under worsening impacts from climate change.

So at the COP15, although we are primarily focused on carbon storage as a form of climate mitigation, we cannot forget about all the other functions that our forests provide: wildlife habitat, adaptation capacity and many more. Trees do grow back, but as we can see from Denmark’s experience, to lose our forests now could mean long-lasting and costly consequences for centuries to come.

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COP15: New USGS Study, Interior Secretary Salazar Tout Climate Role of U.S. Forests

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is making the link between land conservation, forest stewardship and global warming solutions at U.N. climate negotiations this month.

“Carbon pollution is putting our world—and our way of life—in peril,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar in his keynote speech from COP15, the global conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark. “By restoring ecosystems and protecting certain areas from development, the U.S. can store more carbon in ways that enhance our stewardship of land and natural resources while reducing our contribution to global warming.”

Salazar's remarks were underscored by a recent U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessment indicating the United States presently stores 73 billion metric tons of carbon in soils and 17 billion metric tons in forests. This is equivalent to more than 50 years of America’s current emissions from burning fossil fuels.

"The first phase of a groundbreaking national assessment estimates that U.S. forests and soils could remove additional quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as a means to mitigate climate change.

The lower 48 states in the U.S. hypothetically have the potential to store an additional 3-7 billion metric tons of carbon in forests, if agricultural lands were to be used for planting forests. This potential is equivalent to 2 to 4 years of America’s current emissions from burning fossil fuels."

To read the full release, visit the USGS news portal.

To read more about PFT's efforts to conserve working forests for their many public benefits, including wood, water, wildlife and a well-balanced climate, read our Working Forests, Winning Climate program overview.

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COP15: Accounting for Forests

One of the more interesting questions I heard at Forest Day 3 was: why do people think that REDD is going to be more successful than any of the previous efforts to halt the loss of forests around the world? The panel of speakers that responded to this question listed a number of interesting reasons, including:

• This time incentives will be allocated specifically for carbon reductions, not just for reducing deforestation.
• It is performance-based pay -- countries will have to demonstrate that they are measurably reducing emissions from forest loss and degradation.
• The program addresses the primary driver of deforestation, which is poverty.
• There is more money being proposed than ever before.
• There are more watchdogs monitoring this process than ever before.
• Indigenous and local people are being involved in the decision-making, especially around monitoring.
• There is important agreement on MRV (Monitoring, Reporting and Verification) to improve transparency, credibility and effectiveness of the program.

This last issue is one I want to highlight, because in many ways I think this is where the United States can take a real leadership role. The Pacific Forest Trust (PFT) mantra in Copenhagen has been that the Accounting Matters.


In California, PFT and its partners have been able to pioneer a system of accounting that includes many of the components people are discussing here in Copenhagen:

• How to transition from a voluntary to a regulatory system;
• How to fold project based accounting into an overarching system of national accounting;
• How to set baselines that balance past practices and future projections of “business as usual.”

These are all issues that are already being wrestled with on a sub-national level in California with voluntary forest carbon projects under the Climate Action Reserve and emerging regulatory program under AB32: the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.

While we must recognize that other countries are coming from very different starting points, and should not assume there is a “one size fits all” approach, the United States may be a particularly useful testing ground for developing and modeling robust accounting approaches for carbon stock changes in forests.

At the end of Forest Day 3, Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN climate change conference, closed the day with a statement of hope:

“One hundred and twenty heads of state don’t come from all around the world to celebrate failure; they come to celebrate success,” de Boer said.

However, he also admonished those of us in the audience to “safeguard the nitty-gritty.” In other words, amongst all of the high-level political posturing and the challenge to agree on a treaty that is ambitious and binding, we must not lose sight of the details. It is absolutely critical that to ensure a viable and effective international climate change program we have credible and transparent accounting.

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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.

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COP15: Copenhagen Week One

"Forests are Definitely in the Deal"

Wow – it’s a 12-ring circus and hard to know where to start.

First, the negotiations. These Conferences of the Parties (COPs) have a familiar rhythm and we’re now in the closed door phase. The “work horse” delegates have broken into groups to battle out text and resolve the brackets. Occasionally some language becomes public and advocates rush to find someone they can influence. Meanwhile, rumors of high level deadlocks, charges and counter charges fly.

We get updates on high level negotiations almost the same as you – through the press, IISD newsletters each morning, the many websites focused on the scene, and advocate groups who track particular issues. Copenhagen websites are receiving more hits this week than any other place in the world! Yvo de Boer and the Danish President of COP 15 periodically give evening press conferences, and we’ve had briefings from our own U.S. negotiators.

U.S. involvement at COP15 is definitely reflective of the new Administration. Jonathan Pershing has already held two briefings with NGOs and took questions. It's so encouraging to see the United States participating with the rest of the global community in these discussions. They’re here in force with broad public outreach program at a large booth in the Delegate Center.

We've seen presentations by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, Head of the U.S. Geological Survey Marcia McNutt and Deputy Secretary of Interior David Hayes.

Secretaries Tom Vilsack and Steven Chu will be here next week –all signaling the high level attention now paid to climate change by the United States. Not to mention President Obama’s joining the world leaders on Friday. Throughout the day, federal Agencies have a full schedule of presentations on climate policy and technology, demonstrating incredible data from NASA satellites, high tech plans from the U.S. Department of Energy and adaptation plans on federal lands. At last, the United States has something to say.

So what do the rest of the 10,000 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) attendees do each day? Attend the University of Climate Change! A crammed schedule of side events from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. offers panels on every possible aspect of climate impacts, policy, pilot projects, technology and energy, social and ecosystem change, markets and finance you can imagine. It’s a candy store of learning from people at the cutting edge of the subject. Hundreds of thousands from all over the world now work on some aspect of climate change, and here the experts share that knowledge.

And then there’s the exhilarating energy of the advocate groups. Most NGOs are here with a message -- as shown by their colorful exhibits, demonstrations, brochures, costumes, press releases, blogs and street theater. They meet in the morning and deploy during the day, preparing position papers to hand delegates at the door of the closed meetings, and press releases when they hear results. A really neat showing are the organized youth groups of 16- to 19-year-olds who meet together, discuss the issues and meet kids like themselves from all over the world – and they’re smart!

Yesterday’s huge demonstration through the streets of Copenhagen was exhilarating, exciting, and (except for a small few) marvelously peaceful. The wave of marches around the world was on screens throughout the building.

The big issues remain the same – how large the reduction targets from developed countries will be, how China and India will participate, whether Brazil and Indonesia will take commitments on their forests, what money will be pledged to the poorest nations, how it will be administered, and what final form the new agreement will take.

Forests are definitely in the deal. Direction to continue developing structures to implement REDD+, (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in developing countries) will be included, but (as with most sticking points in the negotiations) the question is how the money will flow. Will Brazil and Indonesia need to take firm reduction targets to qualify for international funds? Will baselines be national or sub-national? The text is still in flux.

Another issue deals with countries beginning to include their forests as a sink or a source in their national emissions reporting, and where the baseline will start – at a given date, or based on future harvests that are planned to occur as business as usual. That text, called LULUCF, is still muddled and politicized.

Crowds are building fast. Security lines are long, and the building nears its 15,000 capacity. On Tuesday they start rationing entry and NGOs must limit their delegations.

This first week the pressure is on delegates who know the technical issues and positions of their counties, and stay late into the night hammering out language. This has to get finished since Ministers now arrive to negotiate the bigger politics. And on Friday the heads of state arrive to “Seal the Deal.”

It’s a swirl and there really is tension how it will come out. It’s a hardball game, stakes are high and time is short. Yvo de Boer stays optimistic, but stress starts to show -- and it’ll get worse before it gets better.

It’s amazing to realize this is the scene where something really important is going on!

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PFT Reports from Copenhagen Climate Talks

This week historic climate talks are underway in Copenhagen, where delegates from nearly 200 nations are meeting to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The conference opened with somber warnings about the consequences of inaction, echoed in an unprecedented op-ed run by 56 newspapers in 45 countries around the globe.

Here in the United States we already are seeing the devastating effects of climate change in our forests, biologist Thomas Lovejoy wrote in the Dec. 8 New York Times.

Ecosystem failure has begun to take place in the world’s oceans and "in the coniferous forests of North America as milder winters and longer summers tip the balance in favor of native bark beetles," wrote Lovejoy, our 2008 Forest Fete speaker. “In the United States, approximately 22 million acres are currently projected to be affected. It is an enormous forest and fire management problem. It is hard to project what the future of these forests will be.”

Pacific Forest Trust (PFT) Board Secretary Andrea Tuttle has arrived in Denmark, joining thousands of other attendees concerned with the fate of forests in a new treaty. Tuttle, an international forestry consultant, is part of the California delegation attending the United Nations talks, dubbed COP 15. The acronym is short for the 15th "Conference of the Parties."

Tuttle will be joined by PFT Policy Project Manager Emily Russell-Roy on Friday. They will attend a COP 15 side-conference, Forest Day 3, where more than 1,000 representatives from nations around the globe will seek common ground on forest-based climate solutions.

Tuttle and Russell-Roy will be sharing details of our Working Forests, Winning Climate campaign work with other Forest Day delegates, presenting a poster illustrating the importance of strong forest carbon accounting standards. They’ll also be delivering reports from Copenhagen to us here at home.

Tuttle sets the stage with her first post below.

COP 15 is Launched!

Excitement in the air is palpable here in Copenhagen, a beautiful European city offering its welcome. We’re surrounded by thousands of delegates and observers and an electric atmosphere of anticipation – it’s a fantastic scene to be part of!

The streets are lit and plazas are full of displays related to the climate talks. Urban art, glowing globes, bike lanes packed with riders, windmills along the train track and easy public transit connections tell the climate story outside.

Inside is the center of world diplomacy. Officials, observers and media fill the huge meeting rooms and lounges. Delegates from 192 countries crowd the rows of tables behind their nameplates. Intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, and – encouragingly – big delegations of youth groups watch the official meetings and then separate into hundreds of side events on more aspects of climate mitigation, adaptation, financing, markets, technology and forestry than you can imagine.

For the official negotiators 11 days of hard discussions lie ahead. The opening gavel Monday set a sobering tone as Dr. Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) listed the realities of climate data. Yvo de Boer, Executive Director of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) began with the words of a 6-year-old boy whose parents had been swept away in the raging waters of a storm. The sharp business tones of COP 15 President Connie Hedegaard repeated a challenge: “Seal the Deal.”

The opening sessions were demanding and serious – but leapfrogged the long hours of old rhetoric. These negotiators have been at this for years and are very familiar with the blame, mistrust and grandstanding that can sideline progress.

Statements by parties were crystallized into three-minute segments making clear where we agree and where we still divide. Countries speak through negotiating blocs and as individual entities.

The developing world – represented by the United Nation’s Group of 77 plus China (now actually about 130 countries), the Small Island States, the Africa group, the Latin America coalition and others – reaffirmed their “differentiated responsibility.” Among the key principles in the UNFCCC Convention is the recognition that industrialized, developed countries disproportionately created more of the emissions that fuel global warming - and so should take the lead in addressing the consequences.

Developing nations want ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets from the industrialized world, and seek financial assistance for dealing with the effects of climate change through adaptation, mitigation, technology transfer and capacity building. They haven't forgotten as-yet unmet promises from Kyoto, committing the developed world to provide funds to help them bear the brunt of climate impacts. Indeed, money is key to a deal.

The developed world speaks through the European Union and the Umbrella Group, a loose bloc of non-European Union countries including Australia, Japan, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the United States. Their statements were emphatic – stating the targets they’re ready to take, the commitments they’re ready to deliver, and the funds they’re ready to pledge. What they demand in exchange is for the developing world to take the first step in grappling with their own emissions: requiring accurate reporting that is transparent and verifiable.

What’s really new – wholly refreshing and a huge relief – is the strong voice of the United States. Finally, we’re really here. The statement of Jonathan Pershing, U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change, was clear, firm, engaging and rational.

So the Opening Day challenge has been delivered. Now comes the contentious wading through hundreds of pages of bracketed negotiating text and finally making decisions. What the final architecture will be is still a fundamental debate – an extension of an amended Kyoto Protocol (the U.S. says absolutely not), or a whole new Copenhagen Accord? Many of these meetings are closed – but hundreds of side events now lure the rest of us into full days of learning, discussions, networking and coalition building.

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A Feast of Forest and Climate Coverage

As policymakers count down to United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen, national media outlets are increasingly interested in the role forests will play in national and international efforts to address global warming. High-profile coverage of forests and their climate benefits was carried by news outlets around the country over the long holiday weekend.

In "Carbon Credits Spell New Future for Forests," the Associated Press features the Van Eck Forest we manage in Oregon to demonstrate how allowances for forests in federal climate legislation are poised to usher in a new era of forest stewardship and conservation. The article, which ran in thousands of wire feeds and local, national and international publications, includes several photos from the tour and quotes PFT Director of Stewardship Matt Fehrenbacher.

That same day, PFT Board Secretary Andrea Tuttle was quoted in a New York Times article about the U.S. Forest Service's evolving forest and climate policies.

National Public Radio aired a November 26 story on forest carbon banks as well, and the New York Times capped off the weekend's forest and climate coverage with a story about international efforts to avert forest loss and degradation that will be discussed at United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen later this month.

The mounting media interest in forests and climate is a preview of what's to come at Forest Day 3 in Copenhagen. Organizers have had to close registration for the event, due to overwhelming interest. More than 1,500 leading forestry experts, activists, policymakers, and global leaders will gather for the summit. Participants will explore and debate the implications of new scientific findings on the evolving relationship between forests and climate adaptation and mitigation.

"2009 is possibly the most important year for forests in living memory," according to the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, the event's co-organizer. "We are in the final stretch of the road to Copenhagen, and COP 15, where negotiators expect to finalize a post-Kyoto global climate agreement in December... Forest Day 3 will build on the success of Forest Day 1 and 2 in helping to ensure forests are high on the agenda for future climate outcomes, and will pave the way forward in making these outcomes work beyond Copenhagen."

Andrea Tuttle and Emily Russell-Roy, PFT Northeast Policy Project Manager, will be at Forest Day 3. They'll be checking in with updates, tracking the debates and speaking up for strong forest carbon accounting practices at the project and sectoral level.

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