While the U.S. government’s stance on climate change makes a quick about-face, I’ve been hearing more and more about a concept called  “REDD”, its implications on the environment, and its developing initiatives to keeping forests intact. REDD stands for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation.

By definition, deforestation is the conversion of a forest to another use, and degradation is the more gradual loss of its biomass. REDD, therefore, is the protection of forests currently under threat by those two factors.

Earth’s forests have been disappearing for years. Aside from knowing that forests are home to our planet’s precious wildlife, I never questioned the idea of forest preservation, thinking it was something that simply should make sense. But there wasn’t much truth seeking done on my part, so I set out to learn about REDD and its role in the larger discussion surrounding climate change. Here’s what I discovered – starting from the roots.