Large-scale logging, in the tropics of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, is carried out mainly by international logging companies, earning profits by leasing logging rights on land that is still owned by local people, exporting unfinished logs, and not replanting.

the verb-ing modifier earning is showing a result of large-scale logging but in a typical sentence construction of Subject + verb + Object, verb-ing modifier, Subject of both the verb and the action represented by verb-ing modifier should be same. Large scale logging is the subject in this case which cannot earn. Infact international logging companies is the noun which earn the profits. (A) is wrong.

(A) companies, earning profits by leasing logging rights on land that is still owned by local people, exporting unfinished logs, and not replanting - As discussed above

(B) companies, which earned profits by leasing logging rights on land still owned by local people, exporting unfinished logs, and not by replanting - Wrong parallelism

(C) companies, which earn profits by leasing logging rights on land still owned by local people, exporting unfinished logs, and not replanting - which correctly refer to companies. Parallelism is also fine

(D) companies earn profits by leasing logging rights on land, owned by local people still, export unfinished logs, and do not replant - If put in original sentence then we won't be able to find subject of the verb earn

(E) companies, which earn profits by leasing logging rights on land still owned by local people and export unfinished logs without replanting - Wrong parallelism

(C) is the best choice

(A) companies, earning profits by leasing logging rights on land that is still owned by local people, exporting unfinished logs, and not replanting - Verb-ing modifier "earning" portrays outcome of an action or describes an action. So, the modifier makes no sense in this position
(B) companies, which earned profits by leasing logging rights on land still owned by local people, exporting unfinished logs, and not by replanting - "not by replanting" destroys parallelism
(C) companies, which earn profits by leasing logging rights on land still owned by local people, exporting unfinished logs, and not replanting - Corrrect
(D) companies earn profits by leasing logging rights on land, owned by local people still, export unfinished logs, and do not replant - Companies perform two actions i.e earn and carried out logging. So, wrong.
(E) companies, which earn profits by leasing logging rights on land still owned by local people and export unfinished logs without replanting - "Leasing" is not parallel with "Export unfinished log without replanting" and there is a meaning shift.

Why modifier in (A) "earning", is wrong since its modifying companies. Whereas, "which earn" and "which earned" are redundant.

Hi Lakshya

A comma followed by an -ing modifier, when it comes at the end of a sentence, modifies the entire action of the preceding clause and applies to the subject of that clause. For instance:

The actor spent less than an hour looking over his lines last week, playing Hamlet for the third time in a year

The modifier "playing" applies to the subject of the preceding clause ie; "The actor".

Applying the principle here, "earning" applies to the subject of the preceding clause ie; "Large scale logging". Since it is clearly the companies that earn profits by "leasing...exporting...and not replanting", and not "logging", this is incorrect.

"which" always applies to the immediately preceding noun or noun-idea, in this case, "companies", and is the correct usage.

Hope this helps.
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Thanks for the reply. But isn't the preceding clause is "is carried out mainly by international logging companies, or is it just a descriptive phrase?

How are you supposed to know which meaning is intended by the author?

(E) companies, which earn profits by leasing logging rights on land still owned by local people and export unfinished logs without replanting -

"Leasing" is not parallel with "Export unfinished log without replanting" and there is a meaning shift.

Here “which earn by... and export...” this is parallel right? And this makes more sense to me too. This is describing the company which exports logs without replanting. It doesn’t make much sense to me to say the company earned profits by exporting logs and earned profits by not replanting.

How am I supposed to decipher the correct intended meaning?

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