Why some indigenous groups and environmentalists are saying no
to the “green economy.” Everywhere you look these days, things
are turning green. In Chiapas, Mexico, indigenous farmers are
being paid to protect the last vast stretch of rainforest in
Mesoamerica. In the Brazilian Amazon, peasant families are given
a monthly “green basket” of basic food staples to allow them to
get by without cutting down trees. In Kenya, small farmers who
plant climate-hardy trees and protect green zones are promised
payment for their part in the fight to reduce global warming. In
Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest nations, fully 19 percent
of the country’s surface is leased to a British capital firm
that pays families to reforest. These are a few of the keystone
projects that make up what is being called “the green economy”:
an emerging approach that promises to protect planetary ecology
while boosting the economy and fighting poverty. On its face
this may sound like a good thing. Yet, during the recently
concluded United