Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:51:40.391Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The dynamics of deforestation and reforestation in a developing economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2021

Julien Wolfersberger Open the ORCID record for Julien Wolfersberger [Opens in a new window] ,
Gregory S. Amacher ,
Philippe Delacote  and
Arnaud Dragicevic
Julien Wolfersberger*
Affiliation:
Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, Economie Publique, Thiverval-Grignon, France Climate Economics Chair, Palais Brongniart, Paris, France
Gregory S. Amacher
Affiliation:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA
Philippe Delacote
Affiliation:
Climate Economics Chair, Palais Brongniart, Paris, France BETA, Université Lorraine, INRAE, AgroParisTech, Nancy, France
Arnaud Dragicevic
Affiliation:
IRSTEA, Clermont-Ferrand, Aubiere, France
*
*Corresponding author. [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We develop a model of optimal land allocation in a developing economy that features three possible land uses: agriculture, primary and secondary forests. The distinction between those forest types reflects their different contributions in terms of public goods. In our model, reforestation is costly because it undermines land title security. Using the forest transition concept, we study long-term land-use change and explain important features of cumulative deforestation across countries. Our results shed light on the speed at which net deforestation ends, on the effect of tenure costs in this process, and on composition in steady state. We also present a policy analysis that emphasizes the critical role of institutional reforms addressing the costs of both deforestation and tenure in order to promote a transition. We find that focusing only on net forest losses can be misleading since late transitions may yield, upon given conditions, a higher level of environmental benefits.

Keywords

deforestationeconomic developmentforest transitiontenure costs

JEL classification

O13: Agriculture • Natural Resources • Energy • Environment • Other Primary Products Q23: Forestry Q56: Environment and Development • Environment and Trade • Sustainability • Environmental Accounts and Accounting • Environmental Equity • Population Growth
Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , June 2022 , pp. 272 - 293
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Amacher, G, Koskela, E and Ollikainen, M (2009) Deforestation and land use under insecure property rights. Environment and Development Economics 14, 281–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angelsen, A (2008) Moving Ahead With REDD: Issues, Options and Implications. Bogor, Indonesia: Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).Google Scholar
Angelsen, A and Rudel, TK (2013) Designing and implementing effective REDD+ policies: a forest transition approach. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 7, 91–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Araujo, C, Bonjean, CA, Combes, J-L, Motel, PC and Reis, EJ (2009) Property rights and deforestation in the Brazilian amazon. Ecological Economics 68, 2461–2468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbier, EB, Damania, R and Léonard, D (2005) Corruption, trade and resource conversion. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 50, 229–446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbier, EB, Burgess, JC and Grainger, A (2010) The forest transition: towards a more comprehensive theoretical framework. Land Use Policy 27, 98–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbier, EB, Delacote, P and Wolfersberger, J (2017) The economic analysis of the forest transition: a review. Journal of Forest Economics 27, 10–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohn, H and Deacon, RT (2000) Ownership risk, investment, and the use of natural resources. American Economic Review 90, 526–549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burley, J (2002) Forest biological diversity. UNASYLVA-FAO.Google Scholar
Chiang, A (1992) Elements of Dynamic Optimization, International edition. Singapore: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Chiroleu-Assouline, M, Poudou, J-C and Roussel, S (2018) Designing REDD+ contracts to resolve additionality issues. Resource and Energy Economics 51, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clawson, M (1979) Forests in the long sweep of American history. Science 204, 1168–1174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conrad, JM (1999) Natural Resource Economics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Delacote, P (2007) Agricultural expansion, forest products as safety nets, and deforestation. Environment and Development Economics 12, 235–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delacote, P and Angelsen, A (2015) Reducing deforestation and forest degradation: leakage or synergy?. Land Economics 91, 501–515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delacote, P, Palmer, C, Bakkegaard, RK and Thorsen, BJ (2014) Unveiling information on opportunity costs in REDD: who obtains the surplus when policy objectives differ? Resource and Energy Economics 36, 508–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delacote, P, Robinson, EJ and Roussel, S (2016) Deforestation, leakage and avoided deforestation policies: a spatial analysis. Resource and Energy Economics 45, 192–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehui, SK, Hertel, TW and Preckel, PV (1990) Forest resource depletion, soil dynamics, and agricultural productivity in the tropics. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 18, 136–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FAO, (2010) Global forest resources assessment 2010. Technical report, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome.Google Scholar
FAO and UNEP, (2020) The State of the World's Forests 2020: Forests, Biodiversity and People. Rome: FAO and UNEP.Google Scholar
Foster, AD and Rosenzweig, MR (2003) Economic growth and the rise of forests. Quarterly Journal of Economics 118, 601–637.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gandour, C (2018) Forest Wars: A Trilogy on Combating Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon (PhD thesis). Economics Department, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio).Google Scholar
Gibson, L, Lee, TM, Koh, LP, Brook, BW, Gardner, TA, Barlow, J, Peres, CA, Bradshaw, CJA, Laurance, WF, Lovejoy, TE and Sodhi, NS (2011) Primary forests are irreplaceable for sustaining tropical biodiversity. Nature 478, 378–381.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grainger, A (1995) The forest transition: an alternative approach. Area 27, 242–251.Google Scholar
Groom, B and Palmer, C (2010) Cost-effective provision of environmental services: the role of relaxing market constraints. Environment and Development Economics 15, 219–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartwick, JM, Van Long, N and Tian, H (2001) Deforestation and development in a small open economy. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 41, 235–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kauppi, PE, Ausubel, JH, Fang, J, Mather, AS, Sedjo, RA and Waggoner, PE (2006) Returning forests analyzed with the forest identity. PNAS 103, 17574–17579.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kull, CA, Ibrahim, CK and Meredith, TC (2007) Tropical forest transitions and globalization: neo-liberalism, migration, tourism, and international conservation agendas. Society & Natural Resources 20, 723–737.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambin, EF and Meyfroidt, P (2010) Land use transitions: socio-ecological feedback versus socio-economic change. Land use Policy 27, 108–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luyssaert, S, Sebastiaan, L, Schulze, ED, Börner, A, Knohl, A, Hessenmoller, D, Law, BE, Ciais, P and Grace, J (2008) Old-growth forests as global carbon sinks. Nature 455, 213–215.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lyon, KS and Sedjo, RA (1983) An optimal control theory model to estimate the regional long-term supply of timber. Forest Science 29, 798–812.Google Scholar
Mather, AS (1992) The forest transition. Area 24, 367–379.Google Scholar
Mather, AS (2007) Recent Asian forest transitions in relation to forest-transition theory. International Forestry Review 9, 491–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mather, AS, Fairbairn, J and Needle, C (1999) The course and drivers of the forest transition: the case of France. Journal of Rural Studies 15, 65–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ollivier, H (2012) Growth, deforestation and the efficiency of the REDD mechanism. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 64, 312–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pacheco, P and Heder Benatti, J (2015) Tenure security and land appropriation under changing environmental governance in lowland Bolivia and Pará. Forests 6, 464–491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perz, SG and Skole, DL (2003) Secondary forest expansion in the Brazilian Amazon and the refinement of forest transition theory. Society and Natural Resources 16, 277–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rudel, TK, Coomes, OT, Moran, E, Achard, F, Angelsen, A, Xu, J and Lambin, E (2005) Forest transitions: towards a global understanding of land use change. Global Environmental Change 15, 23–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salas, PC, Roe, BE and Sohngen, B (2018) Additionality when REDD contracts must be self-enforcing. Environmental & Resource Economics 69, 195–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sohngen, B, Mendelsohn, R and Sedjo, R (1999) Forest management, conservation, and global timber markets. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 81, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
UNFCCC, (2015) Paris Agreement. Available at https://unfccc.int/process/conferences/pastconferences/paris-climate-change-conference-november-2015/paris-agreement.Google Scholar
Vincent, JR and Binkley, CS (1992) Forest-based industrialization: a dynamic perspective. In Sharman, NP (ed.), Managing the World's Forests. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/HuntGoogle Scholar
Wolfersberger, J, Delacote, P and Garcia, S (2015) An empirical analysis of forest transition and land-use change in developing countries. Ecological Economics 119, 241–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar