SciDev.Net

Practicalities of trading carbon and protecting forests make meeting high expectations for REDD hard, say Esteve Corbera and Manuel Estrada.

We must take responsibility for the costs of modifying tropical ecosystems for human consumption, says botanist Scott A. Mori.

To get the best for and from Africa, REDD negotiators must hear African viewpoints, says head of the African Forest Forum, Godwin Kowero.

Without knowing REDD's true costs we can't analyse the benefits, says the ASB Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins' Peter A. Minang.

Growing trees among crops could sustain both environments and livelihoods in Africa, say F.K. Akinnifesi, B. Muys and O.C. Ajayi.

South Asian countries must be rewarded for afforestation, reforestation and carbon stock growth, say N. H. Ravindranath and Shamama Afreen.

Reducing deforestation is crucial to mitigate climate change, but it mustn't be used as an excuse to continue polluting, says Roman Czebiniak of Greenpeace.

We should heed researchers' findings that ceasing deforestation in the Amazon could boost its climate change resilience, says Andrew Mitchell.

Safeguarding and replanting forests are key to reducing flooding and protecting wood supplies, says Lester R. Brown.

Forests are valuable assets, and reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) should be prioritised, says Virgilio M. Viana.

Training tree fellers in forest management can cut tree damage and carbon emissions from degradation, argue Francis E. Putz and colleagues.

Collecting comprehensive national and regional data could thwart the spread of malaria in Africa as conditions warm, argues Suad Sulaiman.

Research sites on fragments of the Amazon rainforest are in danger of being fragmented themselves, say William Laurance and Regina Luizão.

Better grassland protection and more targeted funding in rural China are needed to reduce the risk of sandstorms, argues Jiang Gaoming.

South-East Asia must act quickly to stop farmers burning their land, say David J. Lohman, David Bickford and Navjot S. Sodhi.

A Malaysian conservation project could help preserve biodiversity alongside the South-East Asian timber industry, says an editorial in Nature.

Jeffrey McNeely says proponents of biofuels need to take greater account of their environmental impacts and use science to make them more efficient.

Guilio Volpi argues that Brazil's policy of promoting biofuels risks increasing deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon emissions trading would not be an effective way of halting deforestation of the Amazon rainforest; using Brazil’s existing fiscal measures for conservation may hold more promise says Emily Boyd.

T Mitchell Aide and H Ricardo Grau say the devastating effects of recent flooding in Haiti could have been mitigated if its forested highlands had been maintained.