SERIES 2: STANDING PROFITS

Poor people who cut down forests do so out of economic pressure, not ignorance. Mostly they clear the forest for smallholdings and firewood. At the other end of the scale, forests are razed for illegal timber and industrial-scale agriculture, especially palm oil, beef and soya. Deforestation contributes up to 20% of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Perversely, under the Kyoto protocol, there is no reward for those who protect indigenous forests -- by far, the most effective sink for CO2 emissions. On the Copenhagen agenda is a scheme to end that anomaly ... Nature Inc. asks if this scheme is adopted will it make a standing, native forest as profitable as one cleared for other uses?