If you’re an environmentalist, the value of the Amazon rainforest—which amounts to half of the planet’s remaining tropical forest—is obvious.
However, a study from economists and agricultural engineers published recently shows that the economic benefit of the rainforest if it’s conserved is $8.2 billion a year.
In many parts of the rainforest, that economic benefit far outweighs the short-term gain of tearing it down.
“The forest should unambiguously be saved when measured in a purely economic sense,” reads the study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature earlier this month.
The $8.2 billion includes the economic benefit of sustainable industries that currently function in the rainforest, such as Brazil nut farming and rubber tree timber.
Even still, the researchers noted that these numbers only capture a fraction of “the immeasurable overall value of the Amazon forest.”.
But even a climate-change denier can’t argue with cold, hard cash, and this study clearly shows that the economic benefit of most of the Amazon is higher when it’s left standing. »
