Paying poor landowners not to cut trees a cheap way to save forests

Friday, July 21, 2017

As environmentalists debate how best to preserve the world’s dwindling forests, a study published on Thursday offered a simple solution: pay land owners in poor countries not to cut down the trees.

Deforestation dropped by more than half in Ugandan villages where land owners were paid about $28 per hectare each year if they preserved their trees, according to the study from U.S. researchers published in the journal Science.

The benefits of paying land owners to preserve forests were more than two times greater than the cost of the program when it comes to protecting forests and tackling climate change which is exacerbated by deforestation, said the two-year study.

Source: CBC News (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Environment
Tags
forests, global development