Compliance programs' feasibility for reducing worldwide loss of forests and other ecosystems

Excerpt

Rapidly growing farm subsidies in Brazil, Indonesia, India, and China (Clay 2013) dwarf their investment in saving forests. Yet, saving forests and other ecosystems supports crop prices. In the United States alone, farmers' profit increases from potential avoidance of deforestation on the other side of the world could be over US$10 billion y⁻¹ (ADP 2010). The emerging agricultural powers will see their farmers benefit from price increases as will those in the United States. The more countries join together to participate in compliance or other conservation initiatives that effectively save forests, reduce greenhouse gases, and protect ecosystems, the more the world's farmers will benefit from higher crop prices.

Compliance programs, such as those practiced in the United States for nearly 30 years, could use the leverage that countries' rapidly expanding agricultural subsidies provide by denying subsidies to farmers who destroy forests or abuse the land. Compliance achieves countries' dual objectives: (1) saving important forests and other ecosystems and (2) securing more price support benefits for farmers, as prevented deforestation supports crop prices (ADP 2010), which otherwise are projected at much lower than recent price levels (FAPRI-MU 2014).

Analysis first draws on the US Swampbuster experience regarding effectiveness and limitations of…