Deforestation

Though opinions were still poles asunder, participants at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue emerged from three days of discussion which ended Tuesday with guarded optimism.

They based their optimism on hopes of reviving stalled debate and rekindling practical cooperation among those who attended the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen last year.

The Petersberg dialogue was co-hosted by Germany and Mexico which is to host the follow-up to the Copenhagen conference in November.

A group of climate policy researchers has proposed an international registry be set up to coordinate the disparate efforts toward a global REDD+ mechanism. The Technical Working Group on the Institutional Architecture for Climate Finance says such a body is needed to harmonise the wide range of funding initiatives dedicated to REDD+ readiness efforts, implementation and credits.

CNN -- So few forests remain in the tiny country of Armenia that the World Bank has warned it could one day become a desert.

KUALA LUMPUR/JAKARTA, April 29 (Reuters) - Growing economic pain may increasingly force consumers to turn to palm oil, one of the cheapest cooking oils, a move that could scupper nascent plans to slow deforestation in Southeast Asia.