Buy a Bit of Paradise?

There is a growing debate (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/13/conservation) about whether it is appropriate for "individuals, charities or even billionaire financiers" to purchase vast areas of land throughout the world to protect their contained environments from development. There are now many websites "that invite people to buy up forest, field and mountain to save it from destruction and climate change at the click of a mouse." One, the World Land Trust, operates internationally but, in the UK alone, its clients have purchased a total of 141,640 hectares of land. Another, the Woodland Trust, has 200,000 members who raised £22m in 2007 and now own more than 1000 woods on 20,234 hectares of the UK. Similar processes (often involving rich individuals) are evident in the USA. Cool Earth, founded by Swedish-born entrepreneur John Eliasch purchased 161,874 hectares of Amazonian rain forest for £8m in 2006 and is now engaged with supporters in buying up substantial additional areas in Brazil and Ecuador. An interesting phenomenon related to this activity is that, in countries such as the UK and the USA, the 'green land grabbers' are generally supported as they maintain or even increase the market price of land, whereas in poor countries (such as Brazil) their actions evoke fear and hostility. This seems linked to people on the land being prevented from activities such as hunting, cutting trees or introducing new plants to the region to protect the ecosystem. The Forest Peoples Programme has documented numerous examples of indigenous people in Africa being forcibly expelled or having their means of living destroyed by the setting up of wildlife parks and other protected areas. Matters seem likely to get even more complicated if rich countries pay poorer ones not to cut down trees in exchange for carbon credits (in attempts to limit climate change) as the question might arise "who actually owns the trees". In one sense, money going into conserving challenged environments is a good development but there will clearly be tensions as power is concentrated into the hands of a rich elite (who could change their interests). Tensions are likely to be more extreme when the rich elite are from outside the purchased environment.