Pine forest
From The New York Times last night:
"Negotiators have all but completed a sweeping deal that would compensate countries for preserving forests, and in some cases, other natural landscapes like peat soils, swamps and fields that play a crucial role in curbing climate change....
'It is likely to be the most concrete thing that comes out of Copenhagen - and it is a very big thing,' Fred Krupp, head of the Environmental Defense Fund...
For richer nations, the lure of the program is not cash but carbon credits that can be used to cancel out, in part, their industrial emissions under a carbon trading system...
Steve Kallick, director of the Boreal Conservation Pew Environment Group, who studies northern forest stocks and noted that by some measures, boreal forests store twice as much carbon dioxide per unit as tropical forests."
From an announcement that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty made in July, 2008:
"One half of Ontario's vast boreal forest will be permanently protected from mining and other resource development projects as part of a sweeping plan unveiled by Premier Dalton McGuinty to combat climate change.
The government will protect at least 225,000 square kilometres from development, representing one half of the boreal region in the far north and an area 1.5 times greater in size than all the Maritime provinces combined"
Details of the "Reducing Emissions From Deforestation and Forest Degradation" plan will likely be released today but this looks like it could be hugely promising for Ontario and Quebec (Premier Jean Charest is also protecting the Quebec boreal forest).
How this interplays with the rest of Canada's post-Copenhagen commitments remains to be seen (since it is kind of dependent on the federal government coming up with a, what's it called again, oh ya, plan).