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CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION1.1 IntroductionSince the 1990‟s, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)released its first Assessment Report, increasing attention has been paid to climatechange and according to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC), “the international community should strive to prevent dangerousanthropogenic interference with the world‟s climate system” (UNFCCC 1992, p. 4).After the release of the IPCC‟s fourth assessment report it became apparent that it isvery likely that emissions from human activities have caused most of the observedincrease in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20 th century and accordingto the Stern review, “If we don‟t act, the overall cost and risks of climate changecould be catastrophic and be equivalent to a loss of 5 % of the world‟s economyannually, now and forever” (IPCC 2007; Stern 2007).Together with the burning of fossil fuels deforestation plays a crucial role in climatechange and release more CO2 than the combined global transportation sector (Chiesa,Dere et al. 2009). Approximately 18-20% of current global carbon emissions is adirect result of deforestation annually, as the removal of trees account for the releaseof carbon back into the atmosphere from their stored form (United Republic ofTanzania 2009). In an attempt to respond to climate change emissions, there havebeen several environmental agreements and protocols, including the United NationsFramework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol (Boyd2009).Through the Kyoto Protocol some mechanisms have been developed to reduceemissions, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which “allowsdeveloped countries to offset emissions through energy or forest projects that mitigatecarbon dioxide (CO 2) from the atmosphere and allows developing countries tovoluntarily participate in efforts to reduce GHGs in returns for payments fromdeveloped countries” (Boyd 2009). However, only afforestation and reforestationactivities were accepted under the CDM, excluding avoided deforestation as anemission reduction strategy (United Republic of Tanzania 2010).1