3.27.2008 10:02 AM

Flipping a Rain Forest for Profit

Carbon Speculation in a Warming World

The Independent calls it as a "groundbreaking" conservation deal, but Reuters painted it more as a savvy investment.

Canopy Capital, a London investment firm, has bought a stake in Guyana's 1-million-acre Iwokrama rain forest. The deal will ensure that money flows into the management and preservation of the forest, placing a value on ecological services such as rainfall generation, carbon storage, and the preservation of endangered species like jaguars, giant river otters, anacondas and giant anteaters.

Guyana, a small South American country set between Venezuela and Brazil, had already put its vast rain forest under protection in exchange for development aid.

Finding a financial mechanism to compensate nations for preserving existing forests is seen as a key in the fight against global warming, since deforestation is a leading producer of greenhouse gases, next to smokestack and tailpipe pollution.

Canopy Capital, for its part referred to the forest, in statements made to Reuters, as an "asset class" that it expects to sell, at a profit, within 18 months.

Find this article at: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/rainforest-profit-47032707