The Jakarta Post 12/14/2007
By Michael Shank

The irony of Indonesia hosting the United Nations climate change conference in Bali is not lost on anyone. The host county is the third largest greenhouse gas emitter, behind China and the United States, and the world’s leader in deforestation rates at five football fields of forest a minute, 80 percent of which is illegally cut timber.

If Bali produces a post-Kyoto international framework for emissions reductions, Indonesia, as well as China and the U.S., will need some help in carbon offsetting. One answer is in the forest.

Deforestation accounts for 25 percent of human-made greenhouse gas emissions. While the earth is capable of sequestering some of those gases, much remains trapped in the atmosphere, causing gradual global warming. In an effort to cool the planet, the Bali conference is considering, among other things, the forest’s carbon storing potential.

This is a good thing. That trees are good for the environment is well known. That the forest will be an important ally in preventing global warming is a less known fact. The forest’s ability to sequester carbon is substantial: growing trees absorb the air’s carbon, store it as sugar, starch, or cellulose, and remove greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.

What is less recognized is the capacity of the soil beneath, particularly in older forests, to sequester even larger amounts of carbon. While younger forests are more frequently credited with higher levels of daily carbon intake, the secret carbon storage capacity of older forests is in the soil.

What older stands have that the young stands lack is a fungus called mycorrhizal that is especially adept at storing carbon, and lots of it.

Located in the forest’s underground root systems, the fungi appear to be the only producers of glomalin, a protein responsible for almost a third of all the carbon stored in soil and capable of sequestering 40-80 billion metric tons of carbon over the next century. The soil found there may be one of our most valuable assets in our efforts to slow climate change.

The Bali conference must recognize and reward this before it is too late. In Indonesia much of the large intact forest landscapes have already been deforested, nearly 72 percent. Protecting existing stands and safeguarding future stands, therefore, needs to be a critical component of the climate change agenda in Bali.

There is financial incentive to do so. A forest credit system immediately benefits Indonesia, given their remaining forests, and provides incentives to other countries to preserve their forests. Constructing a worldwide trading system, if one emerges in Bali for post-Kyoto, makes it more profitable for big emitters with ample forests to preserve their remaining stands.

Recognizably, cultivating and protecting carbon absorbent forests is a time-intensive process. Yet it remains a more natural and surefire way to cool the planet than mirrors in space, projectiles on ocean surfaces, or cloud-making – all of which are intended to deflect solar rays.

Geo-engineering is risky; no amount of short-term testing can prove long-term impacts. Forests, however, have proven their worth over time.

Bali would do well to recognize this and seriously consider offering emissions credits for forest owners. The soil beneath may well be what saves us from an overheated planet.

(Michael Shank, Arlington, Virginia.The writer is an analyst with George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution.)