Thursday, July 03, 2008

Deal Is Struck in Montana to Preserve Forest Areas

Deal Is Struck in Montana to Preserve Forest Areas - NYTimes.com

An innovative deal has been made to preserve forested lands in Montana. I think it is innovative because of the unique financing structure used combined with the managed logging that will continue. Half of the financing was made available through a new provision included in the recent farm bill in the U.S. to provide bonds for the project. Another interesting element is the timber company that owned the lands previously will be able to purchase some logs at market rates going forward. I think the future of land preservation will follow this same model. There will need to be a continuing balance between environmental and commercial interests for sustainability to be considered. Hopefully this deal is successful in achieving that balance and can be used as a model.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree there has to be a balance between sustainability and profit. But aren't there ways we can make wilderness profitable without opening it up to commercial logging? Can't we take our wood from tree farms and leave nature to replenish and regenerate any way it needs to?

Dagny
www.onnotextiles.com
organic apparel

Toxic World Blog said...

I think tree farms could be an answer. Probably conservation, increased recycling and alternative products would all need to be part of the solution to ensure a better balance.