Conservation Concessions

How much would you pay for 830,000 hectares of tropical rain-forest in Cameroon? Included are the beautiful and undisturbed wildlife conditions, forest elephants (see below) and gorillas.



$1.6 million dollars per year sound reasonable?

Hard to tell. Part of me wants to say that any amount of money is worth it to protect still undeveloped areas. Plus, it sounds like a paltry amount when compared to the US military budget. However, I would guess that there are few environmental organizations able to afford that kind of money every year.

But, $1.6mil is the price that Joseph Matta, the forestry minister of Cameroon is offering to any conservation group willing (and able) to lease the forest land known as Ngoyla-Mintom. He says that he prefers to lease the land to a conservation group rather than a logging company, but that the profit would have to be comparable. He has actually increased his rates recently, due to his estimation that the conservation organization would have to compensate the country for the loss of logging-related jobs and business(1).

The question is, can any conservation group afford to spend $1.6 million each year on this project? Additionally, even if the group is able to afford paying to lease the land, will they actually be able to protect it from poachers and other types of illegal development?





(1) Information from "The unkindest cut" The Economist. Feb. 14, 2008.