Putting a Price on Nature

Conservation doesn't 
come cheap.


An Indonesian coin worth 100 Rupiah dated 1978 declares "Hutan Untuk Kesejahteraan" or 'Forestry for Prosperity.'


Given the level of 'prosperity' seen on the streets of Sumatra 33 years later, it obviously hasn't provided the average Indonesian with much wealth or prosperity.


All that foreign companies have done is to make themselves wealthy and demonstrate to Indonesian villagers that there is a lucrative market for illegal hardwood timber which is easily exploited.