Initiatives: Statement of Problem
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If tropical rainforests are to be managed in support of global climate stability, biodiversity conservation, sustainable development and poverty alleviation, both economic and regulatory regimes must be revised accordingly.
The present state of affairs is untenable.
In many Developing Nations, forests are historically clear cut by outside interests. Rains then wash the thin soils from the hills into the sea, ensuring that the hills will remain unproductive, polluting rivers and damaging the coastal areas and coral reefs. Local communities are paid a pittance for the destruction of their environmental patrimony.
To date, however, tropical forest resource owners have seen no viable alternatives for producing much-needed cash for sustainable development, and been forced to live with a Faustian bargain.
In fact, it now appears possible for developing countries to dramatically reduce the adverse environmental impacts caused by commercial logging while simultaneously generating needed foreign earnings through the modification of existing international carbon and forest products frameworks.
The Rainforest Coalition will seek to facilitate structural change primarily by negotiating access to carbon trading markets and by directly linking forest resource-owners and retail forest product markets.
The Coalition Nations have the option to participate voluntarily within any of the three key Initiatives presently highlighted by the Rainforest Coalition: