外刊精读46 拯救雨林是一笔划算的买卖

Saving the rainforests would be a bargain

拯救雨林是一笔划算的交易

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

要使（雨林）保护工作比砍伐烧毁更有利可图,

[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.

砍伐热带雨林的利润少得惊人。（雨林的）土地不是特别肥沃，一公顷新开垦的亚马逊土地的均价仅为1200美元左右。相比之下，其社会成本是巨大的。大约有500吨二氧化碳被排放到大气中。据保守估计，这会加速气候变化，造成2.5万美元的损失。

[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，世界上的树木仍然在消失。自2000年以来，被原始雨林所覆盖的地区面积已经减少了6.7%。这种毫无意义的破坏仍在继续，因为对于使用电锯的人来说，这根本不是毫无意义的。他们获得了利润；而成本则分散到全地球上80亿人的身上。很明显，如果雨林的所有者受雇而不去破坏它，那么每个人都会过得更好。如果雨林位于产权清晰、法治健全的地方，世界无疑已经为这种交易提供了资金。不幸的是，它们不是这样的。禁止砍伐森林的规则通常很严格，但很少被执行。

[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.

视线转移到巴西。直到1月份，巴西的总统Jair Bolsonaro还站在非法伐木者和农场主这边。他撕毁了环境部的预算，停止了对森林罪犯的罚款，并告诉土著保护区的非法采矿者，会将他们的掠夺合法化。在他的监管下，森林砍伐的速度上升了60%。选民们用路易斯-伊纳西奥-卢拉-达-席尔瓦（Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva）取代了博尔索纳罗先生（Mr Bolsonaro），他正在追捕生态罪犯。但是，要抓到这些罪犯是很难的。

[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 /liːg/ n. 联盟；同盟

in league (with sb) (与…)秘密串通，勾结

penetrate /'penɪtreɪt/ v. 穿过；进入

overlap /əʊvə'læp/ n. (范围方面)部分重叠

despoil /dɪ'spɒɪl/ vt. 掠夺，剥夺；夺取

[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.

类似的障碍阻碍了其他地方的自然保护。长期以来，刚果盆地极度贫困，使得该地区的森林幸免于难。由于买不起链锯，当地农民手动砍树，费力而缓慢。但是森林砍伐正在加速，如果砍伐机械化走在地方政府建立监管机制之前，灾难将随之而来。在刚果民主共和国，前景尤其暗淡，那里大片的雨林被民兵占领，几乎完全无法无天。

impede /ɪm'piːd/ vt. 阻止；妨碍；阻碍

Congo /'kɔŋɡəu/ n. 刚果（位于非洲中部）

dire /'daɪə/ adj. 极其严重的；危急的

laboriously /lə'bɔ:riəsli/ adv. 辛苦地；费力地；不流畅地

calamity /kə'læmɪtɪ/ n. 灾祸，灾难

tract /trækt/ n. 大片土地；地带

militia /mɪ'lɪʃə/ n. 民兵组织，民兵

wholly /'həʊllɪ/ adv. 完全；全面；整体地 

[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、印度尼西亚和刚果这三个拥有最大热带雨林的国家的总统正在敦促富裕国家为保护雨林提供资金。法国总统埃马纽埃尔•马克龙（Emmanuel Macron）本周在加蓬共同主持了一次森林峰会，他承诺将尽自己的一份力。活动人士和消费者可以提供帮助: 经过协调一致的运动，印度尼西亚五分之四的棕榈油提炼产能现在是森林友好型的。但现在迫切需要更多的努力。

bankroll /'bæŋkrəʊl/ v. 资助；提供资金

Gabon /gəˈbɔn/ n. (国名)加蓬(位于非洲中西部,首都利伯维尔)

do your bit 干分内的事

concerted /kən'sɜːtɪd/ adj. 努力的；共同筹划决定的；同心协力的

[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.

领导力很重要。当拥有热带雨林的国家由博索纳罗先生这样的人管理时，几乎不可能取得任何进展。然而，即使在更好的领导下，这些地方也将难以执行自己的法律，除非生活在森林中的人们看到保护森林的好处。这将需要大量可靠的现金流，使热带雨林比夷为平地更有价值。资金来源应是富裕国家的政府和购买碳信用额度以抵消自身排放的私营企业。

intact /ɪn'tækt/ adj. 完整的；原封不动的；未受损伤的

flatten /'flæt(ə)n/ v. 摧毁，推倒，弄倒(建筑物、树木等)

[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.

过去，这种资金流动规模过小，设计也不合理。与其为大量难以监督的小型项目提供资金，不如将更多资金投向规模足以发挥作用的政治实体，如州或省级政府。这种“司法”碳信用可以用来加速地方经济向绿色过渡，理清地方土地登记，并对违规行为进行监管。如果有足够的现金，按条件拨款给当地人，就可以激励当地人保护树木，并减少他们选举环保叛徒的倾向。据估计，每年200亿美元的资金将显著减缓森林砍伐。为了保护如此巨大的碳汇ーー更别提它所包含的生物多样性ーー这将是一笔划算的交易。

infraction /ɪn'frækʃ(ə)n/ n. 犯规；违法 

disburse /dɪs'bɜːs/ v. (从资金中)支付，支出 

inclination /ɪnklɪ'neɪʃ(ə)n/ n. 趋向；趋势

renegade /'renɪgeɪd/ n. 叛徒；背叛者