ABSTRACT
Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD), or reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, is one of the most controversial issues in the climate change debate. The basic concept is simple: governments, companies or forest owners in the South should be rewarded for keeping their forests instead of cutting them down. REDD developed from a proposal in 2005 by a group of countries led by Papua New Guinea calling themselves the Coalition for Rainforest Nations. But perhaps the most controversial aspect of REDD is omitted from the REDD text agreed in Cancun. There are two basic mechanisms for funding REDD: either from government funds or from private sources, which would involve treating REDD as a carbon mitigation "offset," and getting polluters to pay have their continued emissions offset elsewhere through a REDD project. The World Bank's main mechanism for promoting REDD is a new scheme, launched in Bali in 2007: the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.
