Word: forest
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...much is a rain forest worth? Until recently the answer was: virtually nothing. A tropical rain forest provides habitat for untold species of animals and varieties of plants; modulates the climate and helps bring precipitation to land thousands of miles away; sequesters billions upon billions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. But the only market value a forest had were the trees within it, cut down. "Forests fall for a simple reason," says Andrew Mitchell, a conservationist and the founder of the London-based Global Canopy Programme, an umbrella group of forest organizations. "They are worth more dead than alive...
...Mitchell and some of his friends in the London financial community are trying to fix what he calls a "market failure." On March 28 the financial group Canopy Capital announced that it would pay the Iwokrama forest reserve in the tiny South American country of Guyana in return for ownership of the forest's ecosystem services and a claim on any profits that might one day be made on them. Canopy Capital wouldn't say how big the deal was, but the firm's managing director Hylton Philipson said it would cover a significant chunk of the reserve...
...move is unprecedented. Private companies in the past have been involved in "avoided deforestation," compensating rain-forest nations to refrain from cutting down their trees in exchange for carbon credits. (Some 15 million hectares of rain forest are destroyed each year, accounting for some 20% of the carbon emissions annually, as burned or cut-down trees release their sequestered carbon into the atmosphere.) But Canopy Capital is the first firm to try to put a market price on all the other ecosystem services provided by a healthy rain forest. Humans have been availing themselves of those services for nothing, like...
Maggi got in trouble recently for saying he'd rather feed a child than save a tree, but he's come to recognize the importance of the forest. "Now I want to feed a child and save a tree," he says with a grin. But can he do all that and grow fuel for the world as well? "Ah, now you've hit the nail on the head." Maggi says the biofuel boom is making him richer, but it's also making it harder to feed children and save trees. "There are many mouths to feed, and nobody's invented...
...doomed. It's unfair to ask developing countries not to develop natural areas without compensation. Anyway, laws aren't enough. Carter tried confronting ranchers who didn't obey deforestation laws and nearly got killed; now his nonprofit is developing certification programs to reward eco-sensitive ranchers. "People see the forest as junk," he says. "If you want to save it, you better open your pocketbook. Plus, you might not get shot...