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Slowing deforestation ‘worth billions’

A slowdown of forest clearing could generate billions of dollars every year for poor countries as part of a UN scheme to fight climate change, a study showed on Monday.

Burning of forests by farmers clearing land accounts for 20% of world greenhouse-gas emissions, Reuters reported.

"Even with quite conservative assumptions, you can generate substantial amounts of money and emissions reductions," study
co-author Johannes Ebeling, from Oxford-based EcoSecurities, was quoted as saying.

In one scenario, the study said a 10% decline in the rate of tropical forest loss could generate annual carbon finance for developing
nations of between US$2.4 to US$14.30 billion.

The study, published in the British journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, said there were big challenges in designing a
fair system.

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