A managed forest near Jokkmokk, Sweden. Humanity will not limit global heating to safe levels without forests and woodland. Photograph: Peter Essick/Aurora/Getty Images

We thank Patrick Greenfield for this opinion in the Guardian:

Root and branch reform: if carbon markets aren’t working, how do we save our forests?

The world has looked to offsetting schemes to protect forests, fund conservation and fight the climate crisis – but many fail to fulfil their promises. Here are five ways to keep our forests standing

Keeping the world’s remaining forests standing is one of the most important environmental challenges of the 21st century. Humanity will not limit global heating to safe levels or stem the ongoing loss of wildlife without them. From the boreal forest that stretches around northern Europe, Siberia and Canada, to the Amazon, Earth’s forests are some of the most biodiverse places on the planet, home to species found nowhere else.

Yet all too often, forests are worth more money dead than alive – despite promises from global leaders to halt deforestation. Their exploitation has pushed many plants, animals and fungi to the brink of extinction, while slowly degrading their ability to generate rainfall, sequester carbon and cool the planet.

In the race to create incentives to preserve forests rather than cut them down, the carbon-offsetting market has taken centre stage. Forest-offsetting schemes often sell credits on the basis that they will fund conservation schemes, protecting sections of forest that would otherwise be cut down – thereby preventing carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

Scientific research and journalistic investigations, however, indicate that many of these schemes are essentially “hot air” and failing to protect forests as promised. As some major firms reassess their use of forest credits, it raises questions about how we pay for and incentivise the protection of these crucial ecosystems.

Here are five ways that experts have suggested we could tip the balance in favour of keeping forest ecosystems alive:

1. Pay countries to look after forests
At Cop28 in Dubai, the Brazilian government put forward proposals for a multibillion-dollar global fund that would reward countries for conserving forests and penalise them for deforestation. Tasso Azevedo, a forest expert and adviser to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said countries could be paid $30 a year for every hectare of forest they kept intact, while being penalised for every hectare lost…

Read the whole opinion here.