That would unlock funding from the private sector, which has so far contributed just one-tenth of the money provided to keep forests standing, said Gus Silva-Chávez of U.S.-based non-profit group Forest Trends which tracked finance flows in 13 countries.
Over the past 10 years climate negotiators, governments and development banks have put in place the technical standards for a U.N. program aimed at Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in developing nations.
They have helped tropical forest nations prepare to generate verified carbon offsets from their forest conservation schemes which can be traded internationally. But the process has been slow.
"What we really need in Paris is recognition that REDD+ is a key mitigation component, and that you need many more billions of dollars to achieve the reductions (required) to avoid dangerous climate change," Silva-Chávez told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
When forests are degraded or destroyed, the carbon stored in the trees is released into the atmosphere, with deforestation accounting for 10 to 15 percent of carbon emissions worldwide.
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From 2009 to 2014, nearly $10 billion was pledged or committed to REDD+ programs worldwide, mainly by donor governments and international development banks.
But that is "significantly short" of estimates indicating at least $20 billion per year is needed to reduce global deforestation by 50 percent, Forest Trends said in a new report on REDD+ finance.
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During the first decade of REDD+, governments realized the private sector would not pay for the groundwork, and gave millions to kickstart the forest carbon initiative.
Individual donor countries - mainly Norway, Germany, Japan, the United States, Britain, Australia and France - provided 60 percent of the $3.7 billion contractually committed to the 13 tropical forest countries covered by the Forest Trends data.
Read more at U.N. Climate Deal Must Unlock Private Funding for Forests
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