Can Forests Be More Profitable Than Beef?

The residents of Maracaçumé, an impoverished town on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, are mystified by the company that recently bought the biggest ranch in the region. How can it possibly make money by planting trees, which executives say they’ll never cut down, on pastureland where cattle have been grazing for decades?“We are killing pasture that a lot of farmers need,” said Josias Araújo, a former cowboy who…