Ransom for rainforests

Throughout history, mankind has regarded the wilderness as an unlimited resource that can be plundered for food, firewood, and expansion of arable land. While some island nations (including, as we have learned from recent news, Haiti) have already suffered dire consequences from deforestation, the consequences of the loss of wilderness on a global scale were only recognised late in the twentieth century, and both politics and the economy are still struggling to adapt to this challenge. Economists like Pavan Sukhdev, a Special Adviser to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and head of the study group addressing. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), have called on corporations and politicians to explicitly include the value of scarce natural resources, such as fisheries, coral reefs, and rainforests, in their balance sheets. Seen this way, preservation of natural resources no longer is a financial burden — it may turn out to be a very attractive investment. Sukhdev says one should take into account the services that wild nature provides, for example, the rainforests in South America serving as a water pump irrigating the La Plata area and thus supporting the trillion-dollar cattle industry there. Seen this way, preservation of natural resources no longer is a financial burden — it may turn out to be a very attractive investment. Delivering the annual Earthwatch lecture at Oxford's Said Business School last month, Sukhdev pointed out that if land use changes were allowed to proceed following a 'business as usual' model, the natural environment would lose an additional surface area the size of Australia by 2050. The cost of this loss to the global economy, according to Sukhdev's calculations, would amount to between one and three trillion Euros News focus per year, which is several times the losses the banks suffered during the recent financial crisis. So what is to be done? Ecuador, a poor country in financial terms, but the world's richest in biodiversity, has already come forward with a suggestion of a new type of cash deal Ecuador seeks compensation for not drilling the oil beneath its rainforests, but elsewhere cash deals are emerging that are purely based on the value of the forests as providers of 'environmental services'. Michael Gross checks the accounts. Bargaining: Regions of tropical rainforest in Ecuador and elsewhere are being used in a new economic and conservation development. (Photo: Kevin Schafer/Alamy.)