Communities 'Manage' to Slow Deforestation.

PositionRAINFORESTS - Brief article

When the government gives citizens a personal stake in forested land, trees do not disappear as quickly and environmental harm slows down. A study from Ohio State University, Columbus, has found that policies called "community forest concessions" have proven effective in preserving Guatemalan rainforests.

"Globally, there's a huge debate about how to conserve these rainforests and this work shows that these policies slow down aggressive deforestation that harms the environment," says study coauthor Brent Sohngen, professor of agricultural, environmental, and developmental economics. "Most government-protected zones are protected in name only, so it's important to find new ways of slowing deforestation."

In some cases, the government allocated property rights to longtime residents of the area. In other cases, the property was put in the hands of recent settlers or given to those who live a distance away, in a larger metropolitan area.

The research team used satellite land-use data to estimate the impact of...

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