At the same time, it can minimize the amount of virgin land and habitat that would otherwise be needed for power generation.

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Biofuels Watch, a British lobby group, worries that a craze for the stuff could see virgin land tilled specifically to grow crops such as switchgrass, whose only purpose was to be pyrolised and buried.

ECONOMIST: Biochar could enrich soils and cut greenhouse gases as well

Nevertheless, there is a risk that the scheme, by making it easier to get secure title for dubious land claims, might somehow stimulate demand for virgin forest land, not damp it.

ECONOMIST: The Brazilian Amazon

Branson is something of a venture capitalist, plucking his favorite ideas from hundreds of solicitations that land in Virgin's London offices every week.

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"The issue is that dumping impoverished peasants on geometrically-plotted patches of virgin non-arable land, without any infrastructure, tillage equipment, venture capital, housing, water supplies, or training will result quite simply in an ecological disaster, " says Professor du Toit.

BBC: Zimbabwe wildlife 'face disaster'

After finding a plot of virgin prairie grass on his father's land, Mr Block began to build.

ECONOMIST: Building houses

Zona has that opportunity now in Latin America, land of 500 million potentially wired souls, where the Internet landscape is still virgin.

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