When I talked to some Brazilians about the American enthusiasm for buying the rainforest in order to protect it from deforestation, they were pretty concerned a

When I talked to some Brazilians about the American enthusiasm for buying the rainforest in order to protect it from deforestation, they were pretty concerned about how well the property rights in the purchased land could be protected. They pointed out that there is a whole lot of poaching going on in the Amazon and even in Brazilian parks. The Rainforest Trust that you mentioned sounds like they're donating the land to national parks, which seems like a great solution because there will be forest rangers and so on, yet my Brazilian friends were concerned about how effectively they can deter poaching, especially in remote areas. I don't have a clear sense of this but I wonder if it might provide a greater marginal benefit at present to pay for more protection of existing "protected" areas, compared to purchasing additional land.