DATA APPENDIX

The data presented below is summarized from text with additional, referenced data.

Rainforest information
50-90% of Earth's species in tropics (Hall 1989)
40% of medicines are derived from plants and animals (Hall 1989, Durning 1993)
300 million hectares of tropical rainforest in Brazil (Grainger 1993)
6-11 species lost in Amazon per day (assumung extinction rates from Wilson 1989 and loss of 1% of Amazon forest/year (Grainger 1993)

Cattle farming
1 human job for every 2000 cows or 1 job every 12 miles² (Hall 1989)
Average long-term cattle production = 0.7 cows/hectare (Serrão and Homma 1993)

Slash-and-burn agriculture
2-3 harvests of crops expected before land degradation (Hall 1989)
$250-475/hectare to fertilize degraded land (Serrão and Homma 1993)
$70/hectare to slash and burn new land (Serrão and Homma 1993)
Produces 80% of Amazon food production (Serrão and Homma 1993)
$460/hectare revenue for 1 year of agriculture (Serrão and Homma 1993)

Land ownership
3.4 hectare -- average peasant farm size in 1980 (Hall 1989)
Land prices increased 100% per year between 1966-1975 (Hall 1989)
Average population density in Amazon: 2.7 people/100 hectares (Serrão and Homma 1993)
Amazonian deforested real estate value $300/ hectare -- amount for which farmers would part with their land (Serrão and Homma 1993)
Amazonian forested land $150/hectare (Serrão and Homma 1993)

Amazon deforestation rates
1.5-3 million hectares/year (Lawrence 1997)

Ecotourism
Costa Rica $2,000/person entire trip; $1273 spent in country ($86/day/person in local economy), average stay = 3 days (highly unique area) (Southgate 1998)
Galapagos: Ecuadorian: $506, foreigner: $1337 ($102 in local economy) (highly unique area)
La Selva $22.38/person (less unique area) (Southgate 1998)
Ticket prices to Monteverde Reserve in Costa Rica: $15 (Southgate 1998)

Genetic diversity
Merck paid $1,000,000 over 2 years to Costa Rica for bioprospecting rights (Serrão and Homma 1993)
Recent estimate for pharmaceutical value of tropical forest species: $21/hectare (Southgate 1998)

Population and eviction
4 million people in Amazon (Hall 1989)
150,000 evicted/year (Hall 1989)

Agroforestry
Intensive hardwood plantations: 245m³/hectare /65 years (Teak); 150m³/hectare /10 years (Gmelina) (Grainger 1993)
Forestry-coffee mixed plantations: $2-$61/hectare when coffee prices are low, $120-$176/ hectare when coffee prices are high (Southgate 1998)

Timber resources
Only 30-50 species out of several hundreds are economically viable (Grainger 1993)
Amazon has low merchantilable timber: 5 m³/hectare (Grainger 1993)
World and tropical hardwood prices (1998$): 35/m³ (Southgate 1998)
1 logging group = 13 employees (Southgate 1998)
1 sawmill = 34 employees (Serrão and Homma 1993)
1 veneer plant = 300 employees (Serrão and Homma 1993)
Forest management (vine removal and tree thinning): $120/hectare (Southgate 1998)
Stumpage $5/m³ timber (Southgate 1998)
Mills pay $35/m³ timber (Southgate 1998)
Annual increase in mahogany value = 5% (Southgate 1998)

Non-timber resources
$422/hectare for extractable nontimber resources (fruits, latex, nuts, etc.) (Peters et al. 1989)

Environmental costs/benefits
American's willingness to pay to protect tropical rainforests: $110-230/hectare one-time payment (Kramer and Mercer 1997)
Global environmental damages due to C release: $20/ton carbon emitted (Southgate 1998)
100-200 tons of timber/hectare cleared (Southgate 1998)
Plant biomass is 50% carbon (Schlesinger 1997)
Global cost of losing carbon storage: $1,000-$2,000/hectare (Southgate 1998)
Price peasant farmers are willing to accept to stop deforesting: $5-10/ton of timber (Southgate 1998)
27 trees damaged for every tree extracted (Southgate 1998)

Data Sources:

• Durning, A.T. 1993. Saving the forests: What will it take? Worldwatch Publication 117. Worldwatch Institute, Washington, D.C.

• Grainger, A. 1993. Controlling Tropical Deforestation. Earthscan, London.

• Hall, A.L. 1989. Developing Amazonia. Manchester University Press, Manchester.

• Kramer, R.A., and D.E. Mercer. 1997. Valuing a global environmental good: U.S. residents' willingness to pay to protect tropical rain forests. Land Economics 73(2): 196-210.

• Lawrence, W.F. 1997. A crisis in the making: Responses of Amazonian forests to land use and climate change. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 13(10): 411-415.

• Peters, C., Gentry, A., Mendelsohn, R. 1989. Valuation of an Amazon rainforest. Nature 339:655-656.

• Serrão, E.A.S., and Homma, A.K.O. 1993. Brazil. in Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment in the Humid Tropics. National Research Council. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.

• Southgate, D. 1998. Tropical Forest Conservation: An Economic Assessment of the Alternatives in Latin America. Oxford University Press, New York.

• Wilson, E.O. 1989 (September). Threats to biodiversity. Scientific American 261: 108-116.