Off the market

The Democracy Center’s report ‘Off the Market’ connects the dots between the global debate over forest protection and the complex realities on the ground.

As the Earth looks down the barrel of the growing climate crisis, the rate at which our large forests are disappearing is alarming. The ‘lungs of the planet’ are under threat and how to save them is the subject of fierce debate. On one side powerful voices argue that forest protection is best financed by adding forests to the trade in carbon between countries and corporations. Others argue that forest protection should not be used as a license for polluters to continue pouring climate-changing carbon into the Earth’s atmosphere.

‘Off the Market’ traces the issue from the details of the global debate to the complexities on the ground in Bolivia. It begins with a clear and accessible explanation of the issues on an international level, and then captures many differing voices working on the ground in Bolivia – community leaders in the Amazon basin, government officials, farmers, social movement leaders, and others. It moves from the halls of global institutions to the floor of the forests themselves.