Can Villagers Protect Their Forest & Make Money In Ways that Don Require Killing Things?
Some conservation organizations are developing markets for nontimber forest products (e.g., nuts, fruits) so their revenue can be used as an incentive to protect tropical forest. Also, “ecotourism” is widely touted as another way to convince people to protect their tropical forests. Why not promote these more “palatable” initiatives, instead of teaching indigenous people how to kill animals? First off, there is some deception concerning the “fruit and nuts” incentive. “Tropical juice blends” whose “forest products” include banana, papaya, and similar juices probably do nothing to protect virgin forest — those fruits come from gardens cleared from tropical forests! Second, some tropical forest areas have few edible fruits and nuts to exploit. PNG’s forests are an example (probably why Papua New Guineans turned from hunting and gathering, to agriculture, over 4,000 years ago); these island forests historically had few large animals that could have dispersed large fruits. And ecotourism?
