原文標題：
Rainforests
Cash for climate services
Paying locals to conserve rainforests is essential, and possible
雨林
為氣候付費
付錢給當?shù)鼐用駚肀Ｗo雨林是必要的，同時也是可行的[Paragraph 1]
PROFITS FROM chopping down rainforests are surprisingly meagre. The land is not particularly fertile. A freshly cleared hectare of the Amazon fetches an average price of only around $1,200.
砍伐熱帶雨林并不會帶來很高的利潤。這片土地并不是特別富饒。在亞馬遜地區(qū)，一公頃新開墾的土地平均售價僅為1200美元左右。

By contrast, the social costs of clearing it are immense. Some 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide are pumped into the atmosphere. By a conservative estimate, that does $25,000 of harm by accelerating climate change.
相比之下，開墾一公頃土地的社會成本巨大。大約會向大氣排放500噸二氧化碳。根據(jù)保守估計，這將加速氣候變化，造成價值2.5萬美元的損害。

[Paragraph 2]

Yet still the world’s trees are disappearing. The area covered by primary rainforest has dwindled by 6.7% since 2000.

然而，全球的樹木仍在消失。自2000年以來，原始雨林的覆蓋面積已減少了6.7％。

The senseless destruction continues because, for the men wielding the chainsaws, it is not senseless at all.They receive the profits; the costs are dispersed across all 8bn people on the planet.

無情的破壞仍在繼續(xù)，因為對于那些揮舞電鋸的人來說，雨林有價值。他們可以獲得利潤，而成本則由全球80億人口承擔。

Plainly, if the owners of the rainforest were paid not to destroy it, everyone would be better off.

顯然，如果雨林所有者在不破壞它的情況下也能有收益，那么每個人都會受益。

The world would no doubt already have funded such a deal, were rainforests in places with clear property rights and a firm rule of law.Alas, they are not.

如果雨林位于產(chǎn)權清晰和法治嚴謹?shù)牡貐^(qū)，世界上肯定已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)了這樣的資助案例。遺憾的是，還沒有。

Rules against deforestation are usually strict, but seldom enforced.

反對砍伐的法規(guī)通常很嚴格，但很少得到執(zhí)行。

[Paragraph 3]

Consider Brazil. Until January it had a president, Jair Bolsonaro, who sided with illegal loggers and ranchers.

以巴西為例。直到今年1月份，巴西的總統(tǒng)雅伊爾·博爾索納羅都站在非法伐木者和牧場主這邊。

He torched the environment ministry’s budget, stopped fining forest criminals and told illegal miners on indigenous reserves he would legalise their plunder.

他削減了環(huán)境部的預算，停止對森林罪犯的罰款，并告訴非法礦工在土著保護區(qū)的掠奪活動將被合法化。

On his watch the pace of deforestation rose by 60%.

在他的任期內，森林砍伐的速度提高了60％。

Voters have replaced Mr Bolsonaro with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who is pursuing eco-criminals. But catching them is hard.
盧伊斯·伊納西奧·盧拉·達·席爾瓦贏得了選票，取代了博爾索納羅的總統(tǒng)位置，盧拉正在正在追捕環(huán)境罪犯，但抓住他們并不容易。

[Paragraph 4]

Local officials are often in league with the loggers, and may be loggers themselves.

當?shù)毓賳T常常與伐木者串通一氣，有時他們自己也從事砍伐活動。

Local communities often resist the forces of law and order, since they see more benefit from deforestation than conservation.

當?shù)厣鐓^(qū)經(jīng)常會抵制執(zhí)法力量，因為他們認為砍伐森林比保護森林更有利。

The forest’s remoteness makes it hard for police to penetrate.

警察去偏遠的森林執(zhí)法有難度。

And land titling is a mess—in parts of the Amazon overlapping claims add up to five or six times the disputed area.

土地所有權登記混亂，在亞馬遜的某些地區(qū)，土地產(chǎn)權重疊面積是糾紛面積的5-6倍。

When it is unclear who owns a piece of land, it is unclear whom to pay to conserve it, or whom to fine for despoiling it.

當不清楚某塊土地的所有人時，那也不清楚該向誰支付雨林保護費，或當雨林受破壞使也不清楚該處罰誰。

[Paragraph 5]

Similar obstacles impede conservation elsewhere.

在其他地方也存在類似的障礙，阻礙了雨林的保護工作。

Forests in the Congo basin have long been protected by the region’s dire poverty. Unable to afford chainsaws, local farmers chop trees down slowly and laboriously by hand.

長期以來，由于剛果盆地的極端貧困，該地區(qū)的森林一直受到保護。由于買不起電鋸，當?shù)剞r(nóng)民只能徒手砍伐樹木，速度很慢。

But deforestation is accelerating, and if it is mechanised before local governments can regulate it, calamity will follow.

但砍伐速度正在加速，如果機械砍伐在當?shù)卣形粗贫ūO(jiān)管政策之前展開，那么就會帶來災難性的后果。

The prospects are especially grim in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where vast tracts of rainforest are overrun by militias and are almost wholly lawless.
剛果民主共和國的前景尤其令人擔憂，因為大片雨林被武裝分子所占領，法制幾乎不存在。

[Paragraph 6]

The presidents of Brazil, Indonesia and Congo, the three countries with the biggest rainforests, are urging rich countries to bankroll conservation.

雨林面積最大的3個國家分別是巴西、印度尼西亞和剛果，這三個國家的總統(tǒng)正在敦促發(fā)達國家提供資金支持雨林保護工作。

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, co-hosting a forest summit in Gabon this week, promised to do his bit.

本周在加蓬舉行的森林峰會上，法國總統(tǒng)馬克龍承諾出一份力。

Activists and consumers can help: after a concerted campaign, four-fifths of Indonesian palm-oil-refining capacity is now forest-friendly. But more effort is urgently required.
活動家和消費者也可以發(fā)揮作用：在一次協(xié)同運動之后，印尼80%的棕櫚油精煉產(chǎn)能現(xiàn)在是森林友好型的。但仍需更多努力。

[Paragraph 7]

Leadership matters. Little progress is possible when countries with rainforests are run by the likes of Mr Bolsonaro.

領導力至關重要。當雨林國家的領導人像博爾索納羅那樣時，幾乎不可能取得進展。

Yet even under better leaders, such places will struggle to enforce their own laws unless the people who live in the forests see benefits in conserving them.

然而，即使是在更好的領導下，這些國家也將難以執(zhí)行自己的法律，除非居住在森林中的人們從保護森林中受益。

That will require a big, reliable flow of cash to make rainforests more valuable intact than flattened.

為了使雨林保持完整比砍伐更有價值，這需要大量可靠的資金。

This should come from rich-country governments and from private firms buying carbon credits to offset their own emissions.
這些資金應該來自發(fā)達國家政府，及購買碳信用額度以抵消自身碳排放的私營企業(yè)。

[Paragraph 8]

In the past such flows have been too small and ill-designed.

過去，這樣的資金流過小且設計不良。

Rather than financing lots of small projects, which are hard to monitor, more money should go to political entities large enough to make a difference, such as state or provincial governments.

與其將資金用于難以監(jiān)管的小型項目，不如將更多資金投入到足夠大、有實際作用的政治實體，如州政府或省政府。

Such “jurisdictional” carbon credits could be used to accelerate the transition to a greener local economy, to clean up local land registries and to police infractions.

這種“管轄區(qū)”碳信用額度可以用于加快轉向更綠色的本地經(jīng)濟，清理當?shù)氐耐恋氐怯洸?，并監(jiān)管違規(guī)行為。

If there is enough cash, conditionally disbursed, locals will have more incentive to protect trees and less inclination to elect environmental renegades.

如果有足夠的資金，且有條件地支出，當?shù)厝藢⒏袆恿ΡＷo樹木，減少選舉環(huán)境背叛者的傾向。

By one estimate, $20bn a year would slow deforestation significantly.

據(jù)估計，每年投入200億美元將大幅減緩森林砍伐行為。

To preserve such a huge carbon sink—never mind the biodiversity it contains—this would be a bargain.
為了保護如此巨大的碳儲存庫 - 更不用說其中包含的生物多樣性 - 這將是一筆劃算的買賣。

（恭喜讀完，本篇英語詞匯量677左右）
原文出自：2023年3月4日《The Economist》Leaders版塊。

精讀筆記來源于：自由英語之路

本文翻譯整理: Irene本文編輯校對: Irene
僅供個人英語學習交流使用。

【補充資料】（來自于網(wǎng)絡）
碳信用額度（Carbon credits）是通過減少溫室氣體排放量而獲得的，而不是通過吸收溫室氣體。碳信用額度是一個實體減少的排放量的度量，而不是吸收的溫室氣體的度量。碳信用額度通常與減排項目有關，例如通過更有效的能源利用、使用可再生能源或采用更高效的技術來減少溫室氣體排放。

碳匯（Carbon sink）是指吸收溫室氣體的自然或人工系統(tǒng)，例如森林、海洋或土地。當這些系統(tǒng)吸收了溫室氣體后，它們可以產(chǎn)生“碳抵消量”，即它們吸收的溫室氣體的數(shù)量。這些碳抵消量可以被用于抵消其他實體的溫室氣體排放量。

【重點句子】（3?個）
Plainly, if the owners of the rainforest were paid not to destroy it, everyone would be better off.
顯然，如果雨林所有者在不破壞它的情況下也能有收益，那么每個人都會受益。

When it is unclear who owns a piece of land, it is unclear whom to pay to conserve it, or whom to fine for despoiling it.
當不清楚某塊土地的所有人時，那也不清楚該向誰支付雨林保護費，或當雨林受破壞使也不清楚該處罰誰。

That will require a big, reliable flow of cash to make rainforests more valuable intact than flattened.
為了使雨林保持完整比砍伐更有價值，這需要大量可靠的資金。