WHY invest in a rainforest? One short-term reason might be to cut it down and replace it with a soya farm or palm-oil plantation. This is one reason why conservation groups buy up tracts of forest – to conserve what is vanishing fast. Soon, under plans to combat global warming, those who would destroy rainforest will be paid to leave it alone. This is the first major attempt to put a value on something rainforests do for us: they lock up carbon.
Rainforests actually do much more for us. They purify and store water, influence the weather far away by cooling…
