Editorial | Climate | Corporation
i
CORPORATIONS BOUGHT A FOREST TO OFFSET THEIR EMISSIONS, BUT LOCALS ARE PAYING THE COST //
In the southeast coast of Brazil, three American companies with significant carbon footprints have provided $18 million to ensure the preservation of a 50,000-acre reserve of Atlantic Forest. The idea seems simple: trees soak up carbon dioxide. By promising not to cut them down, companies hope to obtain carbon “credits.” But this practice, called avoided deforestation, is one of the most controversial ideas for global negotiators trying to slow the rate of deforestation. The idea is popular in the United States for economic reasons: buying a forest costs up to 80 percent less than instituting emission-reduction technology at home. But it comes with catches—and is not always so popular on the ground, where in this case Brazilian communities must deal with a state police force known as the Forca Verde, or Green Police. // (Story published in Mother Jones Magazines and CWE).
