Mulling how to curb deforestation in Paraguay, Alberto Yanosky throws his hands up in despair. Land clearing has reduced the country’s eastern Atlantic Forest to just 13% of its original size in the past 40 years, and continues to claim more than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) a day of dry forest in the western Gran Chaco. “Forests here are seen as a nuisance,” he says. “They have no value except for what you can get by clearing them for ranching and crop production.” Yanosky, head of Guyra Paraguay, an Asunción-based environmental group, helped last January to launch a US$7 million avoided-deforestation project that pays communities to preserve a total of 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) in both regions over the next 20 years... [Log in to read more]