Deforestation surges as Ecuador kills Amazon protection plan

It's not my turn to blog but I find this article relevant to Tanzi's views at the end of the book. http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0903-ecuador-deforestation.html#2ZSb0hrSTLXGbrFf.01

Data released this week by Terra-i, a collaborative mapping initiative, shows that deforestation in Ecuador for the first three months of 2013 was pacing more than 300 percent ahead of last year's rate. The report comes shortly after Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa killed off a proposed plan to prohibit oil drilling in Yasuni National Park in exchange for payments equivalent to half the value of the park's unexploited oil reserves.

The failure to attract intergovernmental institutions and governments was effectively a nail in the coffin for the concept, which banked on the desire of Western governments to keep 407 million metric tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere while protecting an area of forest that scientists say may be the richest in the Amazon. The biggest setback came in June 2011 when Germany pulled out of a $50 million commitment to the program. Since then, progress on the initiative has largely stalled. Chief stumbling blocks were concerns over how Ecuador would use the funds generated under the initiative, risk of political instability, and whether Correa would abide by his promises. According to U.N. data, Ecuador had one of the highest rates of deforestation in South America during the 2000's, losing 1.8 percent of its forest cover annually.

Tanzi talked about global public goods and the urgency for international governments to cooperate. This failed initiative was one such attempt in recent memory. How ready do you think governments around the world are to work together for the greater good of the world and do you think it is in their interest to do so any time soon? I suspect that even if they do such a thing, any "solution" they agree on is likely to create other problems in the future.