Applying Capitalism to Protect Dwindling Brazilian Forestland

"But now's the time to get involved," Reis told rancher Marcelo Vercisi Coelho this month. "There are programs that have already begun to make it worth it."

Reis explained to Coelho that his organization had recently begun compiling a database of local land holdings, and a Dutch bank had begun using that database to select farmers to participate in a program that pays them to reforest.

The program is based on fledgling carbon-trading markets. Companies in violation of emissions standards are now buying allowances from companies that emit less than the limit. Rabobank is paying a handful of farmers here $8,000 upfront to reforest areas near wetlands, with the idea that it might eventually earn credits for that investment.

The going rate paid to emit one ton of carbon dioxide is between $5 and $10 in most markets, according to Greg Fishbein, director of conservation finance for the Nature Conservancy. If effective mechanisms -- such as databases measuring the amount of carbon stored in a property -- are established, that might be enough to make it profitable for these ranchers.

According to studies, each acre of forest can store about 200 tons of carbon dioxide. Nepstad said that if the farmers of Mato Grosso could sell credits for between $3 and $5 per ton of carbon, they would have little incentive to clear more land.

"If Mato Grosso were a country, it would be in the list of the top five carbon emitters in the world," said Nepstad. "So this is a very big deal."

A Seat at the Table for Ranchers

Brazil's farmers are required by law to be some of the most environmentally conscious in the world. But almost all of them here blatantly ignore the law, without apology.

Since 1998, a government decree has required landowners in many parts of Mato Grosso to keep 80 percent of their property forested, allowing them to cultivate only the remaining 20 percent. In the face of a recent increase in deforestation rates, the government finally demanded compliance and last week required farmers to report how much of their land they had preserved.

The vast majority let that deadline pass without acting, according to Reginaldo Greczyszn, a rancher in the town of Querencia.

"If we have to reforest the land to get up to that 80 percent, how could we possibly survive the income loss?" Greczyszn asked.

A lot of environmentalists wouldn't sympathize with him. But John Cain Carter, a native Texan who founded Alianca da Terra after running a ranch in Mato Grosso for 10 years, has based his nonprofit on the idea that people such as Greczyszn deserve to be heard.

Carter criticizes other environmental advocacy organizations working in the region for sacrificing achievable improvements for unrealistic ideals.