Sustainable Amazonas Foundation: Adding value without destruction

They take up land that could be used to grow crops or farm useful animals; they are impossible to traverse quickly without hydroplanes, and a journey that would take hours by road can take weeks by boat. And they harbour disease and dangerous animals. So it’s little wonder that a previous governor of the Amazonas region of Brazil – in which there are still 157 million hectares of virgin forest – handed out free chainsaws to anyone willing to go and develop what rich westerners would regard as a priceless and inviolable part of our global heritage.

The great challenge in such regions is to provide sustainable alternatives to environmental destruction for the local population. Bald appeals for greenness cut little ice if the felling of a rare tree provides your family with half a year’s income. And when, as is true in Brazil, it is four times...