Bring on the big end of town........

What a refreshing article.......congratrulations to the Australian Financial Review (Weekend Edition 16th - 17th August 2008) and to their journalist Ben Woodhead.

This is an article on a new initiative by Macquarie Bank to buy large tracks of rain forest all over the world as an investment in carbon credits. This new area is Macquarie's climate change practice and is heade by a guy called Oliver Yates. Why are they doing this? as quoted by Yates ' This is the biggest growth market you're going to see" Damn right it is, well done Oliver Yates and Macquarie Bank. A lot of people put a lot of shit on Macquarie Bank for paying large bonus's and being a greedy money making machine, well let me say, if institutions like Macquarie did not do this then they would not be able to take such a massive punt like this nor would they attract talented people like Oliver Yates. I say get off their back and encourage this type of investment. As Yate's says " If organisations aren't moving now to stake a claim in this market [Carbon Credits] are already falling behind their peers".

I know that there are a large number of Ethical or Green Funds that we can all invest in and these funds do a fantastic job in investing in Solar, Wind, Hydro, Geo-thermal which is fantastic and it should be encouraged. The difference with this Macquarie Bank initiative is that it is saving native and virgin rain forest. Why is this a good thing?

Well....if we cn save these native forests then we are saving the biodiversity in these forest, we can give the local people jobs in conservation and allows us to continue to find medical cures. Further more it will mean that the planting of tree farms and other mono cultures can slow up. All in all it is a win for everyone.

While this is a very limited summary of this article, I would encourage all people interested in this scheme to contact Macquarie Bank.

Hopefully....as more of our large institution start to realise the benefits of these types of investments we will see more and more of these types of initiatives and you never know maybe one day one of these organisations will buy up all of the native forests in Australia, well what is left of them, and preserve them forever.

WHat do people think of these types of initiatives and should it be allowed to happen?