Can The Rainforests Be Saved Without A Plan?

Well Intended, Poorly Executed

By Christoph Seidler

REUTERSAn aerial view of a deforested Amazonian jungle. Can money and good intentions really help stop deforestation if there really isn't much of an overarching plan?

The West wants to direct billions toward protecting forest lands, but the lack of any standardized rules and enforcement methods could lead to disaster. Experts warn that the wrong people might benefit from the money and argue indigenous peoples, not bureaucrats, should watch over the rainforests.

It would seem like fairly simple logic: If you want to help protect the environment, help save the forests. Huge amounts of carbon dioxide are stored in plants and the soil beneath them. So, clearing forests using slash-and-burn techniques only succeeds in releasing harmful CO2 and methane gas into the atmosphere.

 

Even if it is still difficult to precisely quantify the carbon footprint of deforestation, it would still only seem logical that there would be some sort of financial reward for protecting the forests. One mechanism, known as "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation," or REDD -- envisions a system that would allow industrialized countries to pay developing and newly industrializing countries to preserve large tracts of forest land. But a newly published report suggests that the REDD program might also give rise to... http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,674169,00.html