One of our colleagues, Chris Henschel of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), has been running around the madness in the Copenhagen climate talks trying to increase the pressure on developed countries to set more ambitious goals on forest management. Forests, peatlands, and other natural ecosystems store tons of carbon, but this carbon is easily released upon development.

One problem Chris has been observing so far in Copenhagen is that many developed countries, including Canada, have been setting poor baseline figures with which to compare future emissions to down the road. He refers to this as a 'logging loophole', where developed countries can get away with future emissions from land use by citing their already-high baseline figures (which they create on their own).

Chris has compiled a useful 'Make Forests Count Scorecard' in which he grades various developed nations by their formal positions on forest management and goals for reducing emissions from land use. Personally I find it shocking that so many developed countries are trying to duck their way out of strong reduction policies in terms of forest management.

Here's a link to his scorecard:
http://makeforestscount.org/scorecard.php

He's been providing updates from his time in Copenhagen on his blog, which can be found here:
http://climateforests.blogspot.com/

Lastly, here's a YouTube video where Chris describes in more detail this 'loophole' mentioned earlier. You might find the first few minutes interesting, but his actual explanation starts at 2:25: