By far the heaviest decimation of forestry acreage comes from areas that squeeze more economic benefit from transforming that same land into agriculture or development. Forests are preserved when and where people can derive value from them – activley logged forests are an asset and are therefore maintained as such.

If the world used more Brazillian hardwood, they would have less incentive to turn the rainforest into cattle grazing and ethanol farms. Using markets to attach a tangible economic benifit to carbon-sinking capacity would also be very helpful.