Vanishing Rain Forests? Hardly

For years, media reports and the so-called experts have been saying that the rain forests were disappearing and that if action wasn't taken soon, they might disappear completely.

Well, just the opposite has been happening, and it's due to people seeking out a better life. Rain forests are regrowing across vast swaths of the world as people move from the forests to urban areas seeking out a better life.

Economic development and an improved standard of living contribute greatly to an improved environment. It actually encourages people to move from rain forests and the use of slash and burn techniques to coax crops in poor jungle soils for a few years before having to duplicate that elsewhere.

The idea has stirred outrage among environmentalists who believe that vigorous efforts to protect native rain forest should remain a top priority. But the notion has gained currency in mainstream organizations like the Smithsonian Institution and the United Nations, which in 2005 concluded that new forests were “increasing dramatically” and “undervalued” for their environmental benefits. The United Nations is undertaking the first global catalog of the new forests, which vary greatly in their stage of growth.

“Biologists were ignoring these huge population trends and acting as if only original forest has conservation value, and that’s just wrong,” said Joe Wright, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute here, who set off a firestorm two years ago by suggesting that the new forests could substantially compensate for rain forest destruction.

“Is this a real rain forest?” Dr. Wright asked, walking the land of a former American cacao plantation that was abandoned about 50 years ago, and pointing to fig trees and vast webs of community spiders and howler monkeys.

“A botanist can look at the trees here and know this is regrowth,” he said. “But the temperature and humidity are right. Look at the number of birds! It works. This is a suitable habitat.”

Dr. Wright and others say the overzealous protection of rain forests not only prevents poor local people from profiting from the rain forests on their land but also robs financing and attention from other approaches to fighting global warming, like eliminating coal plants.

But other scientists, including some of Dr. Wright’s closest colleagues, disagree, saying that forceful protection of rain forests is especially important in the face of threats from industrialized farming and logging.

The issue has also set off a debate over the true definition of a rain forest. How do old forests compare with new ones in their environmental value? Is every rain forest sacred?

“Yes, there are forests growing back, but not all forests are equal,” said Bill Laurance, another senior scientist at the Smithsonian, who has worked extensively in the Amazon.

He scoffed as he viewed Ms. Ortega de Wing’s overgrown land: “This is a caricature of a rain forest!” he said. “There’s no canopy, there’s too much light, there are only a few species. There is a lot of change all around here whittling away at the forest, from highways to development.”

Of course, the Times spends considerable ink trying to justify that the new jungle growth isn't the same as the old ones. Given enough time, they will.

Further encourage the economic development, and you will not only slow the cutting of pristine jungle environments, but hasten the departure of those who engage in the slash and burn subsistence farming that results in destruction of jungle habitat.