The Great Tragedy of Science: Sustainable Forest Management and Markets for Environmental Services

Abstract

Sustainable forest management is one of the most capital-intensive activities imaginable. Governments are unlikely to provide the capital needed to emend landscape degradation. On the other hand, private capital will flow into the sector to fund the necessary solutions, but only if investors are rewarded for the environmental services provided by healthy landscapes. Creating markets in environmental services is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for sustainable forestry.