Save Our Rainforest! (Write A Check)

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa made an unusual appeal to the world community yesterday: Come up with a plan to help, and we'll protect our portion of the Amazonian rain forest. The poor country has incentive to exploit the 2.5 million acre, oil-rich Yasuni National Park. The president asked for a counter-incentive from the world, given that the forest's other natural attributes -- like its extraordinary biodiversity and its super-charged carbon-sequestering ability -- also get a dollar value. It's asking price: $350 million per year -- about half of the revenue the small Latin American nation could expect from pumping its oil into the world market, according to a story in the June 5 Christian Science Monitor.