If you were to go and invent a carbon capture machine, you couldn't invent a better machine than a tree in terms of mitigation for climate change. David Cleaves is climate change advisor for the U.S. Forestry Service. He says trees provide at least part of the solution to climate change. First of all, trees capture carbon from the atmosphere, capture carbon dioxide, convert it to carbon in the tree and store it there for hundreds of years. And even if a tree is turned into a wood product, that carbon remains stored there for many, many years, many decades, even hundreds of years more. Cleaves admits as biased toward trees, but he's not alone. Five years ago, the United Nations initiated a program at the Climate Change Conference for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, now called Red Plus. One of the solutions being discussed is a pay for performance mechanism. The Forestry Service's Shira Yafi explains. Where countries will be paid for their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their forest lands. And that's in the process of being negotiated. And that's really focused on developing countries. South America and Africa have had the highest rate of deforestation, losing more than 7 million hectares of forest annually between 2000 and 2010. Such deforestation says John Watkin of Conservation International has ramifications well beyond its borders. The Congo Basin is responsible for the rainfall that results in Lake Victoria receiving 70% of its water directly from rain onto it. Lake Victoria is a myth-thundress area in the world. It's one of the sources of the Nile. Now, if the deforestation is extrapolated for the Congo Basin throughout DRC and the other countries, we will see a reduction in rainfall onto Lake Victoria, which will result in a reduction in rainfall onto the lake and the flow of the Nile out. That's going to have significant ramifications for all the countries north up towards Mediterranean. According to Conservation International, almost 60% of the world's forests are in developing countries. But 13 million hectares of forest are cleared each year for agriculture, ranching, logging and mining. Efforts like Africa's Green Belt Movement have helped improve deforestation rates with an emphasis on tree planting and sustainable farming. Other programs like the U.S. Forestry Service seek to put a value on trees. Matthew Edwinson is the Africa Program Coordinator with the U.S. Forestry Service. In Central Africa, for example, we're working very closely in Gabon with the Gabonese government to basically help them inventory their national forest and really understand what they have. And that is the fundamental behind allowing for those countries to enter into these carbon market schemes which are being developed because you have to know what you have before you can actually go forward and sell it. Edwinson says the U.S. Forestry Service is working hard to adapt its forest management to a changing climate domestically as well as abroad. And that's what we're also trying to help individuals understand in Africa is given the increase in temperature and certain areas of the Albertane Rift area of Rwanda, Uganda, etc. What's going to happen to agricultural production systems will may grow at a certain level. And if it will not grow there, where are people going to move? And how do you adapt the management of a protected area to understand those likely low movements of people? So helping policy and decision makers better understand that. So while the forestation affects climate change, a warmer climate or a colder climate for that matter affects the forest. We know that the forest themselves, the ones that are here are evolving and moving basically northward and up the slopes because the warmer temperatures and everything goes along with it chasing them. Our fires have gone up to a double rate. The insect and disease problems because of the drought induced stress and the susceptibility to the insect and disease damage has gone up by an order of three just in the last 15 years. So we have many more acres that have been disturbed that need to be rapidly regenerated. As of replanting efforts, the net loss of trees has slowed. Asia has actually increased its forest cover by more than 2 million hectares annually for the past 10 years. Nigeria has one of the worst deforestation rates in the world, but the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says it is Brazil that loses the most forest land each year, more than 2.5 million hectares annually. Rebekah Ward, ThioA News.