Avoided deforestation: Keep the trees and make the rain forest pay
Residents of Amazonia could find that their rain forests generate more income with the trees standing than when cleared for logging or agricultural development, according to an incentive program outlined in a leading scientific journal.
“Avoided deforestation” is not only a worthwhile ecological concept, it also may be worth money to the peoples of rain-forest regions of Brazil and the Guyanas. J. Timmons Roberts, acting director of the program in Environmental Science and Policy at the College of William and Mary, is a co-author of “Climate Change, Deforestation, and the Fate of the Amazon.” The paper was published in the online version of Science on Nov. 30 and will appear in an upcoming print version.
“The concept is basically that wealthy nations would pay for the services provided by an intact rain forest,” Roberts explained. The framework for cash incentives, he said, came from the international markets in carbon emissions that followed the Kyoto Protocol. “In essence, we will be paying for carbon dioxide not released by deforestation, as well as carbon dioxide absorbed by the forest.”
