ABSTRACT
Forest vegetation and soils directly contribute to climate change mitigation by absorbing carbon dioxide. Depletion of forests leads to losses of carbon sinks and GHG emissions due to changes in land use, namely for agriculture. Concerns about climate change and other negative impacts of forest loss have led to the emergence of various policies and mechanisms to integrate the forestry sector in low carbon development strategies. Despite existing opportunities, creating these synergies involves key technical, socio-economic and political challenges. This chapter takes a sectoral perspective focusing on the contribution of forests to low carbon development. The first section studies the links between forests and climate change; the next section then describes other functions of forests. The third section analyses how particular development pathways relate to forest loss. The different forestry-related low carbon development practices and policies are then explored as well as the key structural barriers to achieve effective emission reduction and to make low carbon development compatible with environmental integrity and socio-economic justice.
