In mitigating and adapting to climate change, policy makers often overlook the role of the natural world: specifically, the unique role that forest and peatland habitats have to play. Changing the approach to forests would significantly reduce the cost of tackling climate change and deliver a variety of other benefits, especially in the developing world. In this paper, the case is made that preventing deforestation, promoting afforestation/reforestation and stopping peatland destruction are some of the cheapest and most effective ways of reducing global emissions. The introduction of both market mechanisms and a global fund that can ensure investment is directed into these areas is proposed, as well as a strategy to make this happen as quickly as possible.