The most pressing question regarding sinks in
the land-use change and forestry (LUCF) sector
is whether avoided deforestation can be made a
viable mitigation option under the Kyoto Proto-
col, particularly in the context of the CDM. The
CDM (Article 12) applies only to countries that
have not joined Annex B of the Protocol, and
therefore do not have limitations on their
national emissions. At present, all countries with
substantial areas of tropical forests fall into the
``non-Annex B'' category, making them eligible
for CDM projects but ineligible for other pro-
visions for carbon credit under the Protocol,
such as Joint Implementation (under Article 6)
and emissions trading (under Article 17). At
some time in the future, tropical forest countries
may ®nd it in their interests to join Annex B in
order to capture major potential financial bene®ts
from carbon credits traded under Article 17 that
could be achieved by slowing deforestation [3].