By Kerry Trueman

A new study from an international coalition of agricultural researchers concludes that developing countries stand to gain more financially from letting their forests stand than clear-cutting them, thanks to the emerging market for carbon credits.

So in places like Indonesia, the Amazon and the Congo, where demand for timber and more cropland has led to massive deforestation, a forest-based carbon market could reverse the trend and offer those nations greater financial awards for live trees than dead ones.

According to Brent Swallow, the leader of the study and Global Coordinator of the Partnership for Tropical Forest Margins, “returns for deforestation are generally so paltry that if farmers and other land users were rewarded for the carbon stored in their trees and forests, it is highly likely that a large amount of deforestation and carbon emissions would be prevented.”