DAR ES SALAAM, Oct. 2 -- A SEEDLING in a nursery is a promise. A living forest is proof. For years, the environmental response to tobacco curing in Tanzania has followed a familiar equation: wood is consumed, therefore trees must be planted.

Millions of seedlings have been raised, nurseries established and woodlots promoted. Yet the harder question remains: is the landscape healthier because the tobacco industry operates there?

That question changes the measure of success. It shifts attention from seedlings distributed to trees surviving; from hectares planted to indigenous forests protected; from promises of restoration to evidence of regeneration; and from curing wood purchased to wood whose legal and sustainable origin can be traced ...