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We are 110 scientists-ecologists, economists, anthropologists,
geographers, and climatologists. We are all directly involved with
research to better understand climate change and to identify the
best ways to avoid its most dangerous impacts. Many of us have
spent decades working in the Tropics.

We include 10 lead authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change; 7 members of the United States National Academy of
Sciences; 6 Fellows of the California Academy of Sciences; 1 member
of the European Academy of Sciences; 1 member of the Australia
National Academy of Sciences; 4 current or former Directors General
of the Center for International Forestry Research; and 2 MacArthur
"Genius Grant" fellows. We have collectively authored hundreds of
articles in Science, Nature, and other top scientific journals.

We are writing to strongly urge the California Air Resources Board
to endorse the California Tropical Forest Standard (CTFS). We
believe that California has a unique opportunity to leverage its
global leadership on climate policy to advance a broad and
inclusive agenda to address climate change by protecting tropical
forests at scale.

The message we convey in the attached letter is this: slowing the
loss and speeding the recovery of tropical forests is a critical
part of any successful global strategy for minimizing the negative
impacts of climate change. The CTFS is an important step towards
unlocking this potential.