The U.N.’s grand plan to save forests hasn’t worked, but some still believe it can

Part 1 of my 2-part deep dive into REDD+

The world’s tropical forests are in serious trouble, with deforestation worsening and the sixth mass extinction accelerating faster than scientists previously thought. This grim news comes more than a decade after the international community agreed on a strategy for curbing the destruction of tropical forests as part of the global effort to tackle the climate crisis.

Known as REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation), the strategy sounds simple: Rich, industrialized countries would pay developing countries for preserving forests and avoiding the carbon dioxide emissions released when trees are destroyed. But making REDD+ work has turned out to be anything but simple, in large part because its architects have yet to design the global carbon market that was meant to pay for it.

This means 13 years and plenty of tense negotiations after REDD+ officially debuted in the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in the real world, it still doesn’t exist at its intended scale.

“No, REDD has not achieved its goals!” said Frances Seymour, a leading international authority on tropical forests and a distinguished senior fellow at the World Resources Institute…