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Carbon emissions: the poorest forest dwellers could suffer

Nature volume 462, page 567 (2009)Cite this article

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Debate on the carbon-credit system known as REDD ('reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation') has focused on technical and methodological obstacles and on sourcing carbon finance. The impact of the system on the world's 350 million tropical forest dwellers calls for closer scrutiny.

Without careful planning, REDD stands to create large numbers of 'carbon refugees' as governments curb financially unrewarding deforesting activities such as those of small-scale agriculturalists and fuel-wood harvesters, who mostly pay no taxes on what they produce. Forest dwellers could become excluded from their means of subsistence to preserve carbon.

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  1. Earth and Biosphere Institute, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Simon L. Lewis

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  1. Simon L. Lewis
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See also Carbon emissions: dry forests may be easier to manage For more about limiting emissions, as the Copenhagen conference approaches, see pages 550, 555, 568 and 570 and http://go.nature.com/sRCuKV. Contributions may be submitted to correspondence@nature.com . Please see the Guide to Authors at http://go.nature.com/cMCHno . Science publishing issues are regularly featured at http://blogs.nature.com/nautilus .

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Lewis, S. Carbon emissions: the poorest forest dwellers could suffer. Nature 462, 567 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/462567a

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