Australia has submitted a proposal to U.N. climate negotiators outlining a scheme to use carbon credits to protect rain forests.

The submission is being reviewed by negotiators meeting in Bonn, Germany, to discuss a new climate treaty that is meant to be agreed upon in Copenhagen in December 2009.

“We think a post-2012 agreement will need to include forests in some way,” Climate Change Minister Penny Wong was quoted as telling Reuters. “Currently too many developing nations have an economic imperative to cut down forests. What we need to put in place is a mechanism that means instead of an economic imperative to cut down forests, we have an economic imperative to protect them.”

Wong said deforestation and forest degradation account for around 18 to 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

“What Australia is putting forward is a proposal for a forest carbon market mechanism that essentially will try to provide this economic incentive,” she said.