Is the rate of deforestation slowing?

We've had lots of emails asking if the amount of forest destroyed in the Amazon rainforest really fell last year to its lowest rate in nearly two decades. The good news is that yes forest destruction did slow in 2005 and 2006 and, as a result 600m trees, 20,000 birds and 700,000 primates in the Brazilian Amazon have been saved.

The reduction was attributed by the Brazilian government to their anti-deforestation plan that was launched in 2004 and the federal police operations that led to the arrest of 560 people and the seizure of more than a million cubic metres of wood.

However, the reduction has much more to do with the economics of land-use in South America.  More specifically, the fall owes more to a drop in Soya bean prices and a rise in value of Brazil's currency. This means that a sharp rise in the price of  Soya beans will once again make it profitable to raze the rainforest for agro-business.

The principles behind this are basic supply and demand. Whilst the cost for Soya beans is low, the demand for land on which to plant it is low. Therefore there is no profit in clearing rainforest for plantations.

When the cost of Soya beans is high, the demand for land increases and the price of the land goes up. It is then extremely profitable to raze the rainforest to the ground.

So how do you get round this? Countries with rainforest need to produce food, so what right do we have to say clearing forest for cultivation is wrong?

The answer lies in putting a fair price on standing forest. Forest is not cleared because there is a shortage of land but because it is cheaper to chop down trees than to properly manage land that has already been cleared. In other words put a value on forest to recognise the environmental service it provides to us all and price deforestation out of the market.

This is the way Cool Earth works. By out-bidding others for land in the rainforest, Cool Earth encourages farmers to use land already cleared. This provides incentives to preserve the soil quality of existing farmland and effectively makes it more profitable to leave rainforest standing than razing it the ground. Coupled with the strategic purchasing of land lying on the arc of deforestation, Cool Earth, with your help, is demonstrating the real worth of the rainforest.

All facts and figures taken from a Guardian article: Brazilian ministers claim victory in war on illegal loggers, Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro, Monday August 13, 2007,

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