Saving the rainforests would be a bargain

拯救雨林是一筆劃算的交易

Far more money is needed to make conservation more profitable than slash and burn

要使（雨林）保護(hù)工作比砍伐燒毀更有利可圖,

[Paragragh 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. 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.

砍伐熱帶雨林的利潤(rùn)少得驚人。（雨林的）土地不是特別肥沃，一公頃新開(kāi)墾的亞馬遜土地的均價(jià)僅為1200美元左右。相比之下，其社會(huì)成本是巨大的。大約有500噸二氧化碳被排放到大氣中。據(jù)保守估計(jì)，這會(huì)加速氣候變化，造成2.5萬(wàn)美元的損失。

[Paragragh 2]Yet still the world’s trees are disappearing. The area covered by primary rainforest has dwindled by 6.7% since 2000. 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.?Plainly, if the owners of the rainforest were paid not to destroy it, everyone would be better off. 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. Rules against deforestation are usually strict, but seldom enforced.

然而，世界上的樹(shù)木仍然在消失。自2000年以來(lái)，被原始雨林所覆蓋的地區(qū)面積已經(jīng)減少了6.7%。這種毫無(wú)意義的破壞仍在繼續(xù)，因?yàn)閷?duì)于使用電鋸的人來(lái)說(shuō)，這根本不是毫無(wú)意義的。他們獲得了利潤(rùn)；而成本則分散到全地球上80億人的身上。很明顯，如果雨林的所有者受雇而不去破壞它，那么每個(gè)人都會(huì)過(guò)得更好。如果雨林位于產(chǎn)權(quán)清晰、法治健全的地方，世界無(wú)疑已經(jīng)為這種交易提供了資金。不幸的是，它們不是這樣的。禁止砍伐森林的規(guī)則通常很嚴(yán)格，但很少被執(zhí)行。

[Paragragh 3]Consider Brazil. Until January it had a president, Jair Bolsonaro, who sided with illegal loggers and ranchers. He torched the environment ministry’s budget, stopped fining forest criminals and told illegal miners on indigenous reserves he would legalise their plunder. On his watch the pace of deforestation rose by 60%. Voters have replaced Mr Bolsonaro with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who is pursuing eco-criminals. But catching them is hard.

視線轉(zhuǎn)移到巴西。直到1月份，巴西的總統(tǒng)Jair Bolsonaro還站在非法伐木者和農(nóng)場(chǎng)主這邊。他撕毀了環(huán)境部的預(yù)算，停止了對(duì)森林罪犯的罰款，并告訴土著保護(hù)區(qū)的非法采礦者，會(huì)將他們的掠奪合法化。在他的監(jiān)管下，森林砍伐的速度上升了60%。選民們用路易斯-伊納西奧-盧拉-達(dá)-席爾瓦（Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva）取代了博爾索納羅先生（Mr Bolsonaro），他正在追捕生態(tài)罪犯。但是，要抓到這些罪犯是很難的。

[Paragragh 4]Local officials are often in league with the loggers, and may be loggers themselves. Local communities often resist the forces of law and order, since they see more benefit from deforestation than conservation. The forest’s remoteness makes it hard for police to penetrate. And land titling is a mess—in parts of the Amazon overlapping claims add up to five or six times the disputed area. 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.

league /li?g/ n. 聯(lián)盟；同盟

in league (with sb) (與…)秘密串通，勾結(jié)

penetrate /'pen?tre?t/ v. 穿過(guò)；進(jìn)入

overlap /??v?'l?p/ n. (范圍方面)部分重疊

despoil /d?'sp??l/ vt. 掠奪，剝奪；奪取

[Paragraph 5]Similar obstacles impede conservation elsewhere. 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. But deforestation is accelerating, and if it is mechanised before local governments can regulate it, calamity will follow. The prospects areespecially grim in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where vast tracts ofrainforest are overrun by militias and are almost wholly lawless.

類似的障礙阻礙了其他地方的自然保護(hù)。長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)，剛果盆地極度貧困，使得該地區(qū)的森林幸免于難。由于買不起鏈鋸，當(dāng)?shù)剞r(nóng)民手動(dòng)砍樹(shù)，費(fèi)力而緩慢。但是森林砍伐正在加速，如果砍伐機(jī)械化走在地方政府建立監(jiān)管機(jī)制之前，災(zāi)難將隨之而來(lái)。在剛果民主共和國(guó)，前景尤其暗淡，那里大片的雨林被民兵占領(lǐng)，幾乎完全無(wú)法無(wú)天。

impede?/?m'pi?d/?vt. 阻止；妨礙；阻礙

Congo?/'k??ɡ?u/?n. 剛果（位于非洲中部）

dire?/'da??/?adj. 極其嚴(yán)重的；危急的

laboriously?/l?'b?:ri?sli/?adv. 辛苦地；費(fèi)力地；不流暢地

calamity?/k?'l?m?t?/?n. 災(zāi)禍，災(zāi)難

tract?/tr?kt/?n. 大片土地；地帶

militia?/m?'l???/?n. 民兵組織，民兵

wholly?/'h??ll?/?adv. 完全；全面；整體地?

[Paragraph 6]The presidents of Brazil, Indonesia and Congo, the three countries with thebiggest rainforests, are urging rich countries to bankroll conservation.France's president, Emmanuel Macron, co-hosting a forest summit in Gabonthis week, promised to do his bit. Activists and consumers can help: after aconcerted campaign, four-fifths of Indonesian palm-oil-refining capacity isnow forest-friendly. But more effort is urgently required.

巴西、印度尼西亞和剛果這三個(gè)擁有最大熱帶雨林的國(guó)家的總統(tǒng)正在敦促富裕國(guó)家為保護(hù)雨林提供資金。法國(guó)總統(tǒng)埃馬紐埃爾?馬克龍（Emmanuel Macron）本周在加蓬共同主持了一次森林峰會(huì)，他承諾將盡自己的一份力?；顒?dòng)人士和消費(fèi)者可以提供幫助: 經(jīng)過(guò)協(xié)調(diào)一致的運(yùn)動(dòng)，印度尼西亞五分之四的棕櫚油提煉產(chǎn)能現(xiàn)在是森林友好型的。但現(xiàn)在迫切需要更多的努力。

bankroll /'b??kr??l/ v. 資助；提供資金

Gabon /g??b?n/ n. (國(guó)名)加蓬(位于非洲中西部,首都利伯維爾)

do your bit 干分內(nèi)的事

concerted /k?n's??t?d/ adj. 努力的；共同籌劃決定的；同心協(xié)力的

[Paragraph 7]Leadership matters. Little progress is possible when countries with rainforests are run by the likes of Mr. Bolsonaro. 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. That will require abig, reliable flow of cash to make rainforests more valuable intact thanflattened. This should come from rich-country governments and from privatefirms buying carbon credits to offset their own emissions.

領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力很重要。當(dāng)擁有熱帶雨林的國(guó)家由博索納羅先生這樣的人管理時(shí)，幾乎不可能取得任何進(jìn)展。然而，即使在更好的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下，這些地方也將難以執(zhí)行自己的法律，除非生活在森林中的人們看到保護(hù)森林的好處。這將需要大量可靠的現(xiàn)金流，使熱帶雨林比夷為平地更有價(jià)值。資金來(lái)源應(yīng)是富裕國(guó)家的政府和購(gòu)買碳信用額度以抵消自身排放的私營(yíng)企業(yè)。

intact /?n't?kt/ adj. 完整的；原封不動(dòng)的；未受損傷的

flatten /'fl?t(?)n/ v. 摧毀，推倒，弄倒(建筑物、樹(shù)木等)

[Paragraph 8]In the past such flows have been too small and ill-designed. 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 asstate or provincial governments. 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. If there is enough cash,conditionally disbursed, locals will have more incentive to protect trees and less inclination to elect environmental renegades. By one estimate, $20bn ayear would slow deforestation significantly. To preserve such a huge carbon sink—never mind the biodiversity it contains—this would be a bargain.

過(guò)去，這種資金流動(dòng)規(guī)模過(guò)小，設(shè)計(jì)也不合理。與其為大量難以監(jiān)督的小型項(xiàng)目提供資金，不如將更多資金投向規(guī)模足以發(fā)揮作用的政治實(shí)體，如州或省級(jí)政府。這種“司法”碳信用可以用來(lái)加速地方經(jīng)濟(jì)向綠色過(guò)渡，理清地方土地登記，并對(duì)違規(guī)行為進(jìn)行監(jiān)管。如果有足夠的現(xiàn)金，按條件撥款給當(dāng)?shù)厝耍涂梢约?lì)當(dāng)?shù)厝吮Ｗo(hù)樹(shù)木，并減少他們選舉環(huán)保叛徒的傾向。據(jù)估計(jì)，每年200億美元的資金將顯著減緩森林砍伐。為了保護(hù)如此巨大的碳匯ーー更別提它所包含的生物多樣性ーー這將是一筆劃算的交易。

infraction?/?n'fr?k?(?)n/?n. 犯規(guī)；違法?

disburse?/d?s'b??s/?v.?(從資金中)支付，支出?

inclination?/?nkl?'ne??(?)n/?n. 趨向；趨勢(shì)

renegade?/'ren?ge?d/?n. 叛徒；背叛者