Seeing the carbon for the trees (BBC)

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VIEWPOINT
Peter Seligmann

Protecting the world's remaining tropical forests will play a vital role in preventing dangerous climate change in the future, says Peter Seligmann. In this week's Green Room, he calls for a global system that offers nations an economic incentive to halt the destruction of the Earth's "lungs".

As Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf met US President George Bush at the White House last week, an expert from Liberia's Forestry Development Authority was across the river in a hi-tech laboratory, working on his country's potential involvement in a global strategy to confront climate change.

Augustine Johnson has been looking at ways to map and assess Liberia's remaining tropical forest and the carbon it stores.

If all goes according to plan, that carbon and the forest's ability to store it will become a valuable economic asset capable of bringing new revenue to the African country in desperate need of help to recover from civil war. The forests are already a valuable environmental asset for the whole planet.
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President Johnson-Sirleaf has demonstrated Liberia is a serious partner. A year ago, her newly elected government enacted the Forest Reform Law as a bold step to manage these natural forest resources.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7053332.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7053332.stm