During the last two decades Indonesia has experienced immense forest and land fires. Often these fires are associated with extended drought and widespread use of fire to clear previously logged forest and other degraded land in preparation for oil palm, rubber, or pulpwood plantations. There are many reasons for the use of fire in land clearing activities, but probably the most important one is economics. There is still acceptance that fire is the cheapest, fastest, and most effective land clearing method with the added benefit of providing nutrients from ash residues.

Offsets (also known as mitigation banks, compensatory habitat, set-asides) is a policy instrument recently introduced in several States in Australia to permit some land clearing while striving for no net loss in the extent and condition of native vegetation overall. Offsetting is criticized with respect to the amount of gain required to compensate for losses from clearing, the equivalence of losses and gains, the time lag between losses and gains and a poor record of compliance.

 This brief presents an analysis of the actual mechanics of these regulations, and how they relate to each other. In doing so, authoher reaches exactly the opposite conclusion of the government of India and the financial media. The brief find that India’s current system of financial and environmental regulation is jeopardizing India’s financial system for entirely different reasons to those often argued. And the planned “reforms” of this system will exacerbate these growing threats.

Se describe y explica el proceso de deforestación del área ocupada por los bosques de algarrobo en el oeste de La Rioja y Catamarca, a partir de mediados de siglo XIX hasta la actualidad. Este proceso estuvo asociado al desmonte del bosque nativo y a los cambios de uso del suelo originados por diferentes y sucesivos procesos socio– económicos, que tuvieron como actividades emergentes la minería, el ferrocarril y la demanda de productos forestales, generada principalmente por actividades productivas y de consumo desarrolladas en otras regiones.