Archana Godbole, a botanist, and Jayant Sarnaik, a public-spirited nature lover, have redefined the economics of conservation. Their organisation, Applied Environmental Research Foundation (AERF), pays families to conserve forests that grow on their land.
Godbole and Sarnaik work in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra in the North Western Ghats, a region replete with sacred groves, rambling forests and hoary trees. Vast slopes are privately owned. When families are in need of quick cash, they cut trees. AERF pays them the same amount they would have earned had they felled those trees.
“For conservation to be successful it has. . .
