Help save the rainforest - buy it
Published: June 5, 2007
Sir David Attenborough, Sir Nicholas Stern and Michael Howard are among the supporters of a new charity that aims to let people “buy” parts of the rainforest to protect them.
The charity is the idea of the Labour MP, Frank Field, normally known for concern about social services and pensions, and a Swedish businessman, Johan Eliasch, who already owns 400,000 acres of rainforest.
Fifty million acres of rainforest, an area the size of Britain, are cut down every year, and through burning, decay and eventual destruction of the timber this emits more carbon dioxide than the total annual emissions of the United States.
So protecting rainforests is “the number one priority in tackling climate change,” according to Mr Field, who hopes his new initiative will become a “mass movement.”
He said: “Churchill’s strategy to win World War II was to prioritise those actions that had to be taken that day. Today we fight a different war but equally important - the war against global warming.”
The launch of Cool Earth coincides with the German Chancellor proposing “avoided deforestation” as a tool for tackling climate change but the idea of paying owners something for nothing has proved controversial, as has the issue of foreigners invading national sovereignty for countries such as Brazil.
Mr Field’s solution, backed by the major charity, Fauna and Flora International, is based on previous successful initiatives in Brazil and Ecuador. He said: “This is to enable people to do something today to protect forests that also provides local employment.”
The new charity aims to hold land in trust with local people, such as rubber tappers, who would farm the forest for its natural produce. Deforestation would be prohibited under covenants or management agreements.
Donors pay £70 an acre to protect forest from logging and £90 an acre to protect forest from cattle ranching.
Mr Field says Cool Earth intends to use some of the stakeholders’ money to build up schools and health services.
The forests that the charity intends to protect are at the frontier of development and most at risk, often from being logged illegally or burned for ranches by local people who have no other source of income.
In the past, there have been justifiable suspicions of rainforest purchase schemes, after Sting, for example, raised money for the purchase of forest which was eroded by inflation in a Brazilian bank account.
In this case the backers of the project include some of the impeccable names in rainforest conservation, including Dr John Hemming, director of the Royal Geographical Society, and Adrian Cowell, producer of the film, Decade of Destruction, as well as the president of Iceland, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson and Mark Ellingham, founder of the Rough Guides.
The project has one more backer who may no longer have the public’s total confidence, Tony Blair.
Mr Blair said: “Governments have a key role to play in tackling global warming, but alone, they are not enough. Only with people and Governments working together can we save the planet from catastrophe.”
Mark Rose, chief executive of Fauna and Flora International, said “This is a good initiative and has emerged at a crucial time. We’re very happy to work in partnership with Cool Earth. They have selected two of our projects which can really make a difference. It is now down to the general public to turn their ideas into action.”
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