Study calls for people to be paid £5 a day to help protect the environment

dailyrecord.co.uk:

People should be paid a fiver a day to help protect the environment in the parts of the world most vulnerable to nature loss, an Edinburgh Uni study has urged.Researchers said a “conservation basic income” (CBI) could be given to those living in protected areas in low and middle-income countries.They said cash payments of around £4.40 per day could encourage indigenous people to move away from damaging activities contributing to deforestation, habitat loss and pollution.Introducing a CBI would cost around £380billion a year, experts at the University of Edinburgh found - comparing it to a figure of around £400billion received by fossil fuels and other environmentally damaging industries in state subsidies.The scheme would be similar to ideas for a universal basic income, where people receive unconditional cash payments aimed at reducing poverty.More than three quarters of people living in the world’s key areas of biodiversity - meaning they live near vital and fragile ecosystems such as the Amazon - are in low and middle-income countries.Dr Emiel de Lange, of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who led the study, said: "Addressing the climate and biodiversity crises will take ambitious action to transform our economies and societies."The CBI is a promising proposal to support the Indigenous peoples and local communities that safeguard the world's biodiversity and land, and redress global inequalities."Our study puts concrete numbers to this proposal, showing that CBI is an ambitious but potentially sensible investment."The next step is to pilot CBI schemes in partnership with Indigenous communities."Uni researchers used publically available data to calculate the costs of rolling out CBI schemes across