Researchers find effective recipe for slowing deforestation
When you buy food, furniture and other products, how can you be sure you're not contributing to the disappearance of the world's forests? A variety of eco-certifications exist to inform consumers, but there has been little research to determine their effectiveness. A first-of-its kind Stanford study finds that these certifications represent real improvement in forest product sustainability, with varied levels of effectiveness.
Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of Feb. 29, "Impacts of Nonstate, Market-Driven Governance on Chilean forests" reports that voluntary, market-driven efforts significantly reduced deforestation, with multi-party collaborations having the largest effect.
"Increasingly, people are trying to harness their power as consumers to protect the environment," said lead author Robert Heilmayr, a recent graduate from Stanford's Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources. "Our research shows that these market-based conservation efforts have reduced deforestation in Chile."
Heilmayr and co-author Eric Lambin, the George and Setsuko Ishiyama Provostial Professor in the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, focused on Chile, where a range of governance structures have been employed to slow the conversion of forests to other uses.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-03-effective-recipe-deforestation.html#jCp
