Avoided deforestation can be characterized as the use of financial incentives to reduce rates of deforestation and forest degradation, with much of the focus on forests in tropical countries. While avoided deforestation, as a policy issue, is not new, the current debate in academic and policy circles on including it in future climate change mitigation strategies such as the Clean Development Mechanism is gathering pace – and this debate is only likely to intensify as negotiations continue over what should be included in the successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire in 2012. Up until now, however, the debate in terms of the scientific and economic implications of avoided deforestation has not been brought together. This book aims to bring together important research findings in the area along with their policy implications, whilst linking avoided deforestation to political economy as well as to the latest developments in environmental and natural resource economics.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical—and accessible—plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions—suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.

Land has long been overlooked in economics. That is now changing. A substantial part of the solution to the climate crisis may lie in growing crops for fuel and using trees for storing carbon. This book investigates the potential of these options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, estimates the costs to the economy, and analyses the trade-offs with growing food. The first part presents new databases that are necessary to underpin policy-relevant research in the field of climate change while describing and critically assessing the underlying data, the methodologies used, and the first applications. Together, the new data and the extended models allow for a thorough and comprehensive analysis of a land use and climate policy. This book outlines key empirical and analytical issues associated with modelling land use and land use change in the context of global climate change policy. It places special emphasis on the economy-wide competition for land and other resources, especially; The implications of changes in land use for the cost of climate change mitigation, Land use change as a result of mitigation, and Feedback from changes in the global climate to land use. By offering synthesis and evaluation of a variety of different approaches to this challenging field of research, this book will serve as a key reference for future work in the economic analysis of land use and climate change policy.

Forests offer a natural solution to the climate crisis. Conserving and expanding them not only removes carbon from the atmosphere but also protects and fosters biodiversity. Yet the results of elite-driven reforestation initiatives have been disappointing, and in many world regions deforestation continues relentlessly. Thomas K. Rudel examines a wide range of conservation and reforestation efforts to shed new light on the social factors that lead to success. He details effective coalition-building strategies and organizational models that have protected, restored, and expanded forests around the world. Rudel argues that successful reforestation projects bring together diverse groups of people with a stake in the land and a commitment to collective decision making. They give voice to different economic and social interests, including small farmers, Indigenous peoples, loggers, ranchers, government officials, NGO personnel, international donors, and climate activists. These varied coalition members each make commitments to promote forests. Farmers limit the extent of lands under cultivation, governments protect land tenure for smallholders, and wealthy donors make payments for environmental protections. Timely and accessible, Reforesting the Earth offers a guide to scaling up local efforts to sequester carbon and makes a powerful case for a global reforestation movement.

REDD+ is one of the leading near-term options for global climate change mitigation. More than 300 subnational REDD+ initiatives have been launched across the tropics, responding to both the call for demonstration activities in the Bali Action Plan and the market for voluntary carbon offset credits.

The book highlights proceedings from the Berlin 2008: Agriculture and Development conference held in preparation for the World Development Report 2008.