BARCELONA, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - An elusive consensus on the best way to reduce forest carbon emissions took shape Wednesday with the release of a joint statement by forestry companies, green organisations and indigenous peoples.

All of these groups have clashed in the past, sometimes violently, on how to exploit the resources of tropical forests that provide the livelihood for more than a billion of the world's poorest people -- or whether to exploit them at all.

The Forest Dialogue Initiative on Forests and Climate Change is the first initiative to produce a common platform endorsed by all the actors with a stake in rainforests in Amazonia, central Africa, and Asia, especially Indonesia.

It was unveiled at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.

'Forest leaders, business representatives, donors, and community groups not only agreed on the pivotal role that forests can play in mitigating climate change, but also mapped out a consensus action plant on concrete steps,' said Steward Maginnis of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which organised Congress.

The six key points elaborated in the initiative leave room for disagreement.

But those behind it say they want it to serve as a guideline for United Nations climate change negotiations on a global agreement, slated for completion by December 2009.

'One of our hopes is that by giving more unified message we can encourage governments to go further than they might have in dealing with the link between climate change and forests,' said Maginnis.

One point of consensus was that protecting the carbon storing capacity of forests 'must be one of the world's highest priorities.'

The clearing or destruction of rainforests for mining, slash-and-burn agriculture, cash crops and livestock has severely reduced their ability to absorb the atmospheric carbon dioxide that drives global warming.

Nearly 20 percent of atmospheric CO2 is absorbed by forests in a carbon cycle that helps keep the planet cool.

At any given time, the world's vegetation -- especially in the tropics -- houses five times the amount of carbon in the air.