Forests more valuable standing than cleared. US economists have found how to subsidise protecting African forests at the village level.
Economists have just shown that, at least sometimes, money does grow on the trees of African forests. By paying villagers in Uganda quite small sums not to clear the forest on their land, they changed collective behaviour and more than halved the expected tree loss. And they demonstrated that the rewards of preserving forest were in cash terms more than 2.4 times greater than the monetary cost of saving the woodland, according to a new study in the journal Science. 

So what will it take to prevent Barnaby Joyce and fellow vandals from resumption of land clearing, back up to 40 footy fields per day?

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