Tropical countries may be willing to pay more to protect their forests.

ABSTRACT: Inadequate funding from developed countries has hampered international efforts to conserve biodiversity in tropical forests. We present two complementary research approaches that reveal a significant increase in public demand for conservation within tropical developing countries as those countries reach upper-middle-income (UMI) status. We highlight UMI tropical countries because they contain nearly four-fifths of tropical primary forests, which are rich in biodiversity and stored carbon. The first approach is a set of statistical analyses of various cross-country conservation indicators, which suggests that protective government policies have lagged behind the increase in public demand in these countries. The second approach is a case study from Malaysia, which reveals in a more integrate

SUBMITTER: Vincent JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4104906 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature