To globally protect the climate effectively it is necessary to include forests as a key element of the global carbon cycle for two reasons: Firstly, deforestation has contributed roughly one third of anthropogenic CO2 emissions since the onset of industrialisation and continues to significantly exacerbate climate change, in particular in the South. Secondly, land ecosystems together with oceans have sequestered about 60% of those emissions during that same period. Thus forests contribute substantially to slow down climate change. The Kyoto Protocol is a system of market-based incentives. It was introduced as a first contribution towards solving the climate change problem. It needs a national interpretation and implementation. In this article I explain the key elements of this system of incentives for the forestry and wood sector and discuss its potentials, opportunities, implementational barriers, and risks for Switzerland. It is concluded that the challenge of forests serving as sinks is to be welcomed and that a new “CO2-Agency of the Forest and Wood Sector” – in analogy to the Energy Agency of the Industry – is to be instituted. Its main role is to help in bundling the various interests for the internationally responsible Federation.