Study links old-growth forests and climate action

The Kyoto Protocol does not consider old-growth forests of any significance in national "carbon budgets", a perspective based on the 40-year-old common wisdom. According to Professor Beverly Law, with Oregon State University and a co-author of the study, "If you are concerned about offsetting greenhouse gas emissions and look at old forests from nothing more than a carbon perspective, the best thing to do is leave them alone." EU policymakers are now struggling to define rules to keep trees standing.

October 2008