In Guatemala, People Living Off Forests Are Tasked With Protecting Them
In Guatemala, People Living Off Forests Are Tasked With Protecting Them
By ELISABETH MALKIN
NOV. 25, 2015
UAXACTÚN, Guatemala — Deep in the jungle, where the forest canopy bends sunlight into a lattice of overlapping greens, where jaguars glide and the throaty cries of howler monkeys resound over the birdsong, sits a sawmill that slices giant mahogany logs.
Ominous as the scene may look, the mill is part of a conservation strategy to preserve the forest.
The forest’s survival, indeed the endurance of forests across the tropics, whether in Brazil, the Congo Basin or Indonesia, offers benefits far beyond national borders. By absorbing carbon dioxide and trapping carbon, forests play a vital role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
On that, there is little disagreement. Yet it has been much harder to reach a consensus over how to fend off the threats encircling them. Cattle ranchers, farmers, illegal loggers and drug traffickers all lay waste to forestland, virtually immune to government efforts to protect it.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/26/world/americas/in-guatemala-people-living-off-forests-are-tasked-with-protecting-them.html?_r=0
Environment & Energy:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/112794244