Forests, payments and tariffs

Tim Worstall writes,

Rich world forests are expanding, as they have been for near a century. It’s a distinction that’s worth making: perhaps those disappearing tropical ones are going because those countries are not rich?

And if that is so then the solution is to aid them in becoming rich so that forest cover returns, as it has done in the rich countries?

The Laughing Cavalier replies in a comment,

Perhaps we could start the ball rolling by paying them not to destroy their forests.

And Serf replies,

Perhaps we could start the ball rolling by lifting our tariffs on their produce.

I think Serf's proposal is more promising. And we should also lift our barriers to immigration.