Editorial: Gambling on the rainforests

A venture capital company has bought the rights to ecosystem services from a 370,000-hectare rainforest reserve in Guyana. In return for its investment, London-based Canopy Capital will receive a percentage of any income that might one day be made from the reserve's ecosystem services. The company's hope is that these services will eventually become tradable commodities in the same way that carbon is today. Once Canopy Capital has recouped its investment, 80 per cent of further profits will go back to the reserve.