Looking forward, things to watch include: the impact of economic recovery on commodity prices and agricultural expansion for food and biofuels production; large - scale
land acquisition by foreign nations and corporations in tropical countries; climate negotiations and the REDD mechanism, including controversies over
land rights, «offsetting», forest definitions, and sustainable forest management; the emergence of payments for ecosystem services beyond REDD; the cap - and - trade versus carbon tax schemes;
efforts to address the demand side of deforestation — notably consumption; emerging certification systems for agricultural and forestry products (i.e. RSPO, Aliança da Terra, FSC, etc); and Brazil's progress in meeting its deforestation reduction targets.
But the good news for tropical forests was tempered by developments including Indonesia announcing its intentions to open up more than 2 million hectares of carbon - dense peatlands to old palm development; the collapse in law enforcement in Madagascar, contributing to an explosion of commercial timber (and lemur) harvesting in that country's spectacular rainforest parks; a breakdown at the RSPO meeting over
efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from palm oil production; violent conflict in Peru between government security forces and indigenous groups over
land rights and resource extraction; massive foreign
land acquisitions in the Congo Basin; dodgy REDD dealings in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea; and large - scale expansion of oil palm agriculture in the Amazon.