As world leaders raced against time to come up with a new global protocol to combat climate change at the Conference of Parties (COP-15) in Copenhagen on Dec. 12, Asia-Pacific nations met in Hanoi, Vietnam, to discuss how forests in the region can aid in mitigating climate change.

Decision-makers and over 80 participants from 12 Asia-Pacific nations, together with forestry experts, met at the “First Regional Forum for People and Forests” at the Hanoi Horison Hotel.

“The world’s forests, especially old-growth forests like those found in our region, play a vital role in fighting global warming and climate change as they serve as the ‘‘Lungs of the Earth,” said Philippine presidential adviser on global warming and climate change Secretary Heherson T. Alvarez, who delivered a keynote address at the forum.

The tropical forests of the Asia-Pacific region, comprising some 15 percent of the world’s forest cover which eat up 25 percent of the carbon in the atmosphere, are acknowledged and valued as the carbon sinks of the world – capable of absorbing more carbon dioxide in the form of biomass than any other region.

However, forests are constantly under threat with some 1.7 million hectares of natural forests lost every year. In Southeast Asia alone, subsistence farming, timber exploitation, and big-scale coffee and palm oil plantations drive the conversion of forests for agriculture.

This loss attributed to land conversion makes up 20 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions.

“This rapid deforestation and degradation of tropical forests add up to the total amount of global carbon dioxide emissions. Forest-related mitigation measures are now recognized to be among the most practical and cost-effective measures to slow global warming,” Alvarez said.

Under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), world leaders are now rushing to come up with a new climate change treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement that sets global standards for greenhouse gas emissions which will expire in 2012.

The UNFCCC’s Bali Action Plan has identified Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation or REDD mechanism as a vital program to combat climate change. REDD is now part of the UNFCCC negotiations as a strategy versus climate change.

Alvarez said vulnerable countries in Asia-Pacific, like the Philippines and Vietnam, are already enduring the worsening impacts of creeping climate change such as severe and more devastating typhoons, floods, massive landslides, and rising sea levels.