The Independent of London reports a vital safeguard to protect the world’s rainforests from being cut down has been dropped from a global deforestation treaty due to be signed at the climate summit in Copenhagen in December. Under proposals due to be ratified at the summit, countries which cut down rainforests and convert them to plantations of trees, such as oil palms, would still be able to classify the result as a forest and could receive millions of dollars meant for preserving them. Environmentalists say plantations are in no way a substitute for the lost natural forest in terms of wildlife, water production or, crucially, as a store of the carbon dioxide which is emitted into the atmosphere when forests are destroyed. The oil palm industry is a major driver of deforestation because palm oil is used to make biofuels.