Governance, economic policy, and the environmental Kuznets curve for natural tropical forests

Abstract

This paper reports the results of an empirical analysis of the relationship between income and the rate of deforestation of tropical natural forests. The inverted U-shaped relationship known as the environmental Kuznets curve is confirmed here when it is examined for about 60 countries from the tropical regions of Latin America, Africa, and Asia during the period 1980 to 1995. The study focuses on the role of institutions and governing factors and macroeconomic policies in the tropical deforestation process. Results indicate that the quality of governance and underlying institutions are important determinants of forest resource preservation, and that rural population pressure is not as important as suggested by other studies. Agricultural technology improvement and enhanced educational attainment and social development factors also lead to reductions of deforestation rates.1 A selected paper presented at

Property rights and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

“…An environmental Kuznets curve for deforestation is specified to catch a non linear influence of income per capita (GDPC and GDPC 2 ) on deforestation (e.g. Angelsen and Kaimowitz, 2000;Barbier, 2004;Bhattarai and Hammig, 2004;Culas, 2007;Koop and Tole, 2001). One would expect an increase in deforestation due to agricultural expansion and demand for fuelwood in first stages of development (e.g.…”

“…Bhattarai and Hammig, 2004;Culas, 2007;Cropper and Griffiths, 1994). Other studies have highlighted the role played by macroeconomic -fiscal, exchange rate and / or sectoral policies -in the deforestation process (e.g.…”

A nova ruralidade: globalização, camponeses e os paradoxos das paisagens

“…Initially focused on industrial externalities, the term has been expanded to embrace a number of natural resource questions including deforestation. Trends in forest cover are explained using a range of variables including population, population density, GDP, debt, institutional configurations (such as democracy, corruption) and policy factors to test whether the curves exist , and at what per capita income level the inflection point -the place where environmental trends shift in a positive direction -occurs (see Koop;Tole, 2001;Ezzati et al, 2001;Bhattarai;Hammig, 2001;Stern et al, 1996;Usivuori et al, 2002;Culas, 2007). Forest EKC modeling efforts, generally rely on FAO panel data that are often questionable and do not easily assess successional and anthropogenic forests and thus the questions of forest trend used in these studies are very ambiguous (GRAINGER, 2008;PERZ, 2007a).…”

“…That is, the processes that lead to the per capita GDP, whether growth, redistribution, windfalls (oil income) institutional change, forms of governance etc, remain a "black box". There is some interesting evidence that suggests a fair degree of variability in EKC patterns depending on these "black box" processes (CULAS, 2007;DINDA, 2004;MAGNANI, 2001;BHATTARAI;HAMMIG;, but these have fallen out of the models.…”

Changement climatique : faut-il récompenser la « déforestation évitée » ?

“…Cette courbe de Kuznets environnementale est régulièrement débattue, avec des résultats contradictoires dès lors que la pollution est la principale dégradation environnementale mentionnée (relation confirmée chez Dasgupta et al, 2002, mais contestée par Stern, 2004. En ce qui concerne la déforestation tropicale, la relation semble empiriquement vérifiée (Ehrhardt-Martinez et al, 2002 ;Bhattarai et Hammig, 2004) et les auteurs insistent notamment sur le rôle de l'amélioration de la gouvernance dans la réduction de la déforestation. Plusieurs auteurs (Mather, 1992 ;Rudel et al, 2005) Il est théoriquement possible d'envisager des scénarios ajustables dans le temps et de réviser le scénario de référence en cas, par exemple, de changement important des prix relatifs (effondrement des cours du soja qui ralentirait le front pionnier de déforestation au Brésil).…”