What can governments of nations around the world do to save the rainforest?

Answer 1

Actually the Kyoto Protocol had a contreversy:

- how to value forest as a carbon sink (with all the side effects: biodiversity, local climate, etc...)

In a first time, only reforestation over land that has not been a forest for the last 20 years could count. Why? To avoid companies to cut down the forest and replant it years later just to get the credit. So nothing was done to stop deforestation.

Thanks to the work of CostaRica, a methodology has been approved now to count avoided deforestation as a sellable carbon credit (like for everything in life you need money).

Good luck to this process and I hope that money will be now spent to stop deforestation and save the original forest which are by far more biodiverse than reforested areas.

Answer 2

That is a hard problem. Poor people can make a living cutting trees in the rain forest. Poor farmers can clear forest land and make a living growing crops. Some former rain forest land has been made into sugar cane plantations to make ethanol. If we really want to use ethanol to replace gasoline, we will need a LOT more farm land, and the main reason to clear forest is to make farm land.

Answer 3

we must look for ways to improve economic situations on the edges of Nature .

the only way to preserve the forrest is to devellop eco tourism under strict control that has limited acces ,and use the local people in the concept as guides ,hotel staff and get them to start home industries of artifacts .

eco tourism is the only concept that profits by a healthy back ground with out harming it

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trees are coming down all the time ,
in My town trucks loaded with huge logs of exotic timber leave the mountains with permits bought from corrupt oficials almost nightly
we can only guess at the exact amount but from my house we can see many bare patches on the mountains and the river is constantly muddy in the last 3 years ,because topsoils, without the protection of the forrests , is washed into the rivers ,

this is just one place and this is happening all over Mexico ,the Market for the wood being the USA.
here is a general note on deforestation

CAN DEFORESTATION BE STOPPED
Almost impossible

the Indians or local people would cut everything down and burn the forrest to replace it with harmfull short term farming killing the soil in no time

expanding populations and expanding farming ,that has to keep pace with the expanding populations are very strong forces that encroach upon the rainforest's
clearing them for farming and settlement areas .

that and the giant networks of roads that have exchanged forests for asphalt all over the planet

In Mexico is a famous jungle that the Media has been trying to save for years
the Naturists ,and the government ,keep watch .laws are made for protection the wild and to forbid logging.
TV put out a series of documentaries
there are campaigns in the News papers
and all of this has not made the slightest difference

Rainforest's always are in third world countries and always in third world countries corruption and the need for money s highest

the jungle gets smaller by the day
more and more farmers move in .and burn the trees
it is an impossible situation
as long as there is poverty and an increasing birth rate in these regions the destruction will continue

they are too easily tempted to sell of exotic animals to the unscroupelous people who buy them.for the market that exists in the USA.

REFORRESTATION

we must reforrest and at the same time reduce our carbon emissions.
most governments are aware of these and many first world countries now include programs to reduce their carbon emissions.

the world bank pays large subsidies for farmers to plant trees especially a tree called Paulownia elongate carolinia,because it is one of the better ones that capture carbon.

IN THE PAST
the sahara used to be forrests
arabia ,irak ,iran used to be fertile lands in biblical times
Ghengas Kahn burned all the forrests here and filled the well with water and so turning vast lands into dessert.
the Spanish Armada deforested Spain
.the Phoenician fleet deforested Lebanon

Madagascar a botanic paradise is now destroyed
the exotic animals sold or killed ,the forest slash and burned for agriculture ,the coastal water poluted by topsoils washed fronm the denuded moutains by the rains.

many many countries in Africa (because of poverty and war as well as greedy farming )
Borneo because of the expensive timber
india ,China ,Mexico ,South Americas Amazonia,
Europe because of civilization,USA,Japan because of overpopulation,

NOTE
1000 trees that are replanted do not come anywhere near as producing the same effect or fullfilling the same function ,as far as carbon absorbtion ,production of humidity,climatic effects as the absorbtion or release of heat ,as ONE SINGLE FULLY GROWN TREE.

people keep saying we are good we cut down a thousand trees and replanted 20 thousand more

This means nothing in terms of environmental effects.

it takes at least 10 to 20 years before one of these replanted trees makes the same impact as the ones that are removed Source(s) read a planet under stress ,plan B --by Lester E Brown.
it is in an Adobe print out as well on the net.

http://byderule.spaces.live.com...