If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a buck? That’s what rural landowners ask themselves when evaluating how to earn a living from their forests. The unfortunate answer, according to a study in Conservation Letters, is that the land beneath a fallen tree is still worth more than a standing tree, despite global efforts to reverse this order.

Using economic models, the authors found that clearing a hectare of forest for palm oil production yields a landowner anywhere from $3,835 to $9,630. By contrast, preserving that forest under the U.N.’s REDD program — the global effort to combat climate change with incentives to save forests in developing countries – would earn the owner less than $1,000. The problem is that the carbon markets where credits for avoiding deforestation trade are still voluntary. If REDD credits were part of a mandatory emissions reduction market, however, the hectare’s conservation value shoots up to $6,000.

The authors conclude that unless global climate policies legitimize carbon markets for avoided deforestation, the REDD program too will fall without a sound.

(Source: Conservation Magazine)