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Haiti, with a forest cover estimated at 3% of all land area, has experienced severe degradation of its natural resources and a significant change in its land cover. While deforestation in Haiti is obviously multifaceted, one issue emerges from previous empirical analysis in explaining deforestation: land tenure. This study focuses on the causes of deforestation in Haiti, particularly in Foreˆt des Pins Reserve, using the annual average area of cleared forest per household as the dependent variable. Data were collected with the use of a survey instrument administered to 243 farm households in 15 villages inside the Reserve. Tobit Regression results reveal that household size, education of head of the household, land tenure regime, and farm labor are important factors affecting land clearing.

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This paper discusses the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have played in developing and promoting certification in the forest products sector. First, it sheds light on the ways in which certification institutions - private, voluntary mechanisms governing firms' behaviour - emerge and evolve over time. Second, it demonstrates that NGOs are indeed becoming a 'third force' in international politics (See Florini, A. (ed.) (2002) The third force: the rise of transnational civil society. The Carnegie endowment for international peace, Washington, DC, 295 pp.), shifting power away from governments and forever transforming the traditional relationships between states, firms and consumers.

A method is described for determining optimal economic strategies for density management in loblolly pine (Pinustaeda L.) stands in the southern United States. A stochastic dynamic programming model employs a price state transition matrix constructed using a first-order conditional cumulative density function for price based on time-series data for national forest pine stumpage in the South. The model also incorporates WTHIN, a pine growth and yield simulator widely used in the South to support analyses of alternative stand management strategies. Results indicate that at current average prices for pulpwood, on average sites, optimal planting density decisions recommended by the stochastic model are very similar to those obtained with a deterministic price equivalent. However, there are many instances where the thinning decisions recommended by the two models are different, especially when they are used to evaluate better sites or when the price of pulpwood is substantially increased above current region-wide averages.