ABSTRACT
In Costa Rica, we travel along a dirt road through torrential rain. We are sitting in the back of an open truck and our clothes are soaked by the time we get to our destination, deep down in a forested valley. The owner of a small hydroelectric station is there to greet us; his power plant generates 3 megawatts of electricity to supply the local town. He’s made a success of this business and is proud of the station, which is in excellent repair. All around the land is settled by poor farmers and the power plant owner pays them a set sum every year not to clear the forest in order to protect his water supply. He knows that there is a debate about how much deforestation would alter the water flow, with some specialists thinking it would make little difference, but he doesn’t care. Right now, there is forest and there is water and the amount that is paid to the farmers every year is a very small insurance policy. Further north in Guatemala, Pepsi Cola is also paying money to keep forest above one of its bottling plants, this time to maintain the exceptionally high water quality that will disappear if the forests are replaced by farmland and cattle.
