The Papua New Guinea ambassador to the United Nations, Robert Aisi, has suggested that rainforest protection should be added to measures to prevent global warming.
He mooted the proposal at a seminar of climate experts from more than 150 countries in the German city of Bonn.
If successful, it could open the way to a major expansion of the attempts to limit climate change and would mean that PNG would be paid not to cut down its rainforest.
But the National coordinator for the PNG Eco forestry forum, Thomas Patter, says the proposal is complicated and would not necessarily benefit local people who own the resource.
Mr Patter says the government is not truly committed to protecting the rainforest.
"It should implement the legal framework which is already governing the resources rather than embarking on a new idea that may take a long time to come into play while the trees are continuing to be cut. But I guess the government is more interested in the money than the conservation aspect of forest."
The National coordinator for the PNG Eco forestry forum, Thomas Patter.
Mr Aisi also told the meeting that they could not wait until 2012 when the Kyoto Protocol expires, because there won't be any rainforest left to save by then.
