> What I'm trying to get at is deforestation will always happen if forests are allowed to be sold That's not really true. Most land in the world isn't develop

> What I'm trying to get at is deforestation will always happen if forests are allowed to be sold That's not really true. Most land in the world isn't developed. Just allowing it to be developed doesn't mean it will be in some manifest-destiny sort of way: there has to be some incentive to develop it. It might turn out that undeveloped, unstrategically located land simply has little economic value (and is more valuable as a carbon sink). Making food, industry and dwelling more land efficient would push down the economic incentives to develop more land.