K — E –Y — Why? Because it’s good PR (even if it is a pointless environmental gesture):
The Walt Disney Company announced Tuesday that it has made a $4 million investment in forest conservation projects to decrease carbon dioxide emissions.
The money will go to Conservation International for reforestation projects in the Tayna and Kisimba-Ikobo Community Reserves in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Alto Mayo conservation project in Peru.
The $4 million is one of the largest corporate donations ever made to an international effort known as Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation — or REDD.
The REDD program rewards countries that preserve forests with carbon credits that can then be sold for cash on the global carbon market.
“It’s a real milestone,” said Toby Janson-Smith, the senior director of forest carbon markets at Conservation International. “It really shows how far we’ve come in understanding the role that tropical forest loss plays in climate change.”
Mr. Janson-Smith hopes that Disney’s donation will help draw attention to REDD as climate legislation is debated in the United States Congress, and as December’s United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen approaches.
Disney is donating additional funds to two other non-profit groups: The Conservation Fund and The Nature Conservancy.
Two million dollars will go to a Nature Conservancy reforestation project in the Lower Mississippi Valley, and $1 million will go to The Conservation Fund’s sustainable forestry work along California’s North Coast.