Conserving Tropical Forests by Understanding, Valuing, and Monetizing Their Services to Development Goals

Tropical forest services contribute to development goals related to food, water, energy, health, safety, and poverty reduction, in addition to climate and biodiversity. However, precisely quantifying the economic value of forest services can be challenging. And initiatives to “make forests worth more alive than dead” by monetizing their services (e.g. non-timber forest products, ecotourism, bioprospecting, payments for ecosystem services) have had some boutique successes but have not reversed the tide of tropical deforestation. Many of the pitfalls that have constrained previous efforts to value and monetize forest services can potentially be avoided with international carbon payments (i.e. REDD+), yet REDD+ has faced challenges of its own.