Miliband promotes plan to buy rainforests

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Miliband promotes plan to buy rainforests

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... w_01102006





Miliband promotes plan to buy rainforests



By Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor

(Filed: 01/10/2006)

Ministers are proposing an extraordinary scheme to tackle climate change in which the Amazon rainforest would be turned into an international trust and its trees sold to individuals and groups.

Plans for the wholesale "privatisation" of the rainforest will be raised by David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, at a summit in Mexico this week.

The scheme, endorsed by Tony Blair, aims to protect the plants and wildlife from logging. About 13 million hectares of the world's forests are lost annually to deforestation, according to the Government.



At last year's meeting of the G8 group of leading industrialised nations, Britain pledged to take a lead on climate-change programmes.

Mr Miliband will set out his plans at a meeting in Monterrey of ministers from 20 of the biggest energy-using nations. The plan is the brainchild of Frank Field, the Labour MP and former minister. It appeals to the Prime Minister and Mr Miliband, according to their officials, because it would "capture the imagination of the world" and "bring the international community together".

But both emphasise the idea is at an early stage and admit that there would be "sovereignty issues" involving the government of Brazil, which is home to almost all the Amazon rainforest.

Mr Miliband said: "Obviously there are sovereignty issues but deforestation is a massive issue… and any plan, however radical, is worth looking at." It would involve the creation of an international body to buy the rainforest before setting up a trust to sell trees. The buyers would be "stake-holders" in the rainforest.

A key figure behind the scenes has been Johan Eliasch, the Swedish-born multi-millionaire businessman who is deputy treasurer of the Conservative Party. Earlier this year he bought 400,000 acres in the Amazon rainforest for an estimated £8 million.

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006.

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Miliband promotes plan to buy rainforests

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Hamster wrote: Interesting OM....



Who would have the rights to those animals living on the land...Do they own all that too? The land or just the trees?


Good question, Hammy. I will be looking out for any developments on this.
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Miliband promotes plan to buy rainforests

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Hamster wrote: Would this give them the right to charge people admission to the rainforest...I can see a bizarre horrible turn of events where it becomes a tourist attraction with stake holders out bidding each other as people trample through whatwas meant to be protected by this move...


It's a problem. There are always complications at the international level as different politicians seek to gain maximum power over a situation. I will have to find out what Johan Eliasch is doing with his 400,000 acres.
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Miliband promotes plan to buy rainforests

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I can just hear Brazil telling the rest of the world to sod off and leave them to sort out their own problems.

As a sidenote It was private landowners that dunuded the UK of trees to the extent that they were glad for the forestry commission to take the land off them. Remember the outcry when The tories proposed re-privatising the forestry commission forests and letting the twits that caused the damage in the first place get their hands on it again?

It's a daft idea I just can't see anyone taking it seriously least of all the Brazilians. Why should they sell natural assets to foreugners?
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Miliband promotes plan to buy rainforests

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The idea is basically to set up something along the lines of the National Trust. Selling the trees would not convey the right to uproot it or otherwise diminish the tree. It would raise money for the Trust. The impetus for the idea is to protect the rainforest and put an end to the damage going on there.

As I said in an earlier post, we should find out what Johan Eliasch is doing with his 400,000 acres.
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Miliband promotes plan to buy rainforests

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Hamster wrote: It sounds good in theory...but I just get the idea that it wont work:thinking:


That's probably because there are mostly politicians involved. But not all business men are bad.
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Miliband promotes plan to buy rainforests

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Hamster wrote: No this is true of course...It will be interesting to watch it develop..:thinking:


It would be good if it did work out and it would provide a blueprint for further similar trusts elsewhere in the world.
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Miliband promotes plan to buy rainforests

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Hamster wrote: Yes in theory it would work for any area at risk..or even any species at risk?



What do you think?


If run like our trusts, the species would be automatically protected.
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