The laws to protect rainforests are typically strict on paper. But very often, the rainforest is in countries where property rights are not clear. So even if you do pay one guy not to chop down the forests, other people may come in with chainsaws and encroach on his land. And that's a huge problem. Very often you'll find that the areas that are being chopped down are remote. It's very difficult to get police enforcement there as Sarah found in Brazil.
The economics are clear-cut: the benefits of preserving the lungs of the world vastly outweigh those of felling trees. We travel to the Amazon and find that the problem is largely down to lawlessness in the world’s rainforests. And reflecting on the life of Oe Kenzaburo, a Japanese writer shaped by family crisis who gave voice to the voiceless.
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