Forests' flood prevention, watershed stabilization, and fisheries protection services are each worth billions more. But because such services as flood control fail to show up in conventional accounting systems, these benefits, and trees themselves, remain undervalued. Durning urges governments to tax, rather than subsidize, forest destruction, so that more of the value of forests is reflected in the price of wood. The report also recommends user fees. The proceeds would be a powerful incentive for the U.S. Forest Service to preserve forests instead of promoting timber cutting and mining.
Nations disregard the rights of tropical forest dwellers.
Market pricing does not reveal the full cost of wood. And forest policies are shaped by the few who profit from deforestation. Unless these things change, the forests will continue to fall. The number one priority for creating a sustainable forest economy is a property rights system that allies the interests of forest people with the health of forest ecosystems. Durning shows that Third World reforestation initiatives routinely fail when the forest land is under the exclusive control of the state rather than of local residents.