How to insure a tree against going up in smoke: Even conserved forests are at risk of fires, storms, illegal logging.

Forest owners want full access to credits as fast as possible. But insurers suggest that half be retained in buffer funds in case forests vanish in a few decades. If a forest disappeared, the credits in the funds would go to them. "How much land-managers will see of the price is what the excitement is about," said Frances Seymour, head of the Center for International Forestry Research in Indonesia.