World Ecology Solution: An Easy and Elegant Way to Save the World’s Rainforests

A. The Problem

Rainforest is rapidly disappearing. Irreplaceable invaluable biological wealth is being destroyed.

B. The Solution

There is a simple and elegant solution: Have the world’s wealthy countries join together to buy it all and turn the rainforests into preserves in perpetuity. These preserves would be available to be mined for medical discoveries, but would otherwise be left alone.

The sums are trivial.

For example: There are about 1.2 billion acres of Amazon rainforest. Perhaps 2.5 billion acres of rainforest worldwide. This is remote cheap land. If it were all bought for about $50 per acre, the total cost would only be about .125 trillion dollars.

In a world economy of about 80 trillion dollars, annually, .125 trillion dollars is a trivial sum, especially if the cost is spread out over a few years.

The local populations living in the rainforests would have to be paid to watch the land and forest rangers would have to be paid to enforce the preservation. These sums would ensure the support and economic wellbeing of the local populations.

C. The Sample Implementation

Go to each wealthy country and request two dollars per ten thousand dollars GDP per annum. That is roughly 3.8 billion USD from the USA and EU each. 1 billion from Japan. 2 billion from China and a half billion from Russia and India. With donations from smaller countries, you have an annual budget of about 12 or 13 billion. Once the rainforest preserves are established, in about a decade, these donations can be significantly reduced.

The best-case scenario for implementing the rainforest preserves would involve official assistance from the countries hosting the rainforests. If these countries could be convinced to pass a law mandating the creation of the preserves and also mandating that the existing landowners receive a bit more than fair market compensation, the process would likely proceed as quickly as is feasible. Such an arrangement might include the stipulation that ten percent of the gross revenues from all discoveries in or from the preserves would go to the maintenance of the preserves and their populations — which would not be…