Global Market Relations and the Phenomenon of Tropical Deforestation

Abstract

The limited but controversial evidence on global warming has focused on the importance of forests, especially tropical forests, in their role of carbon sequestration and the possible mitigation of global warming. Unfortunately the tropical forests are fast disappearing. What are the causes of this deforestation? Can a knowledge of the causes of deforestation suggest appropriate policies that can arrest deforestation and so slow down global warming? This paper is concerned with these two questions. A number of quantitative models aimed at explaining deforestation have been offered. We assess these models to fmd answers to the questions mentioned above. It is argued that though deforestation is obviously a there is a presumption of the existence of land hunger in Asia also. Of course the political economy of Asia may be further complicated by other factors such as income inequality or political power and control over land. Perhaps the newer nonlinear estimation techniques may be able to capture these effects. On the policy front, it is not necessary to wait for such analysis. It is already apparent that the fundamental problems are those of global equity. Alleviating poverty in the South will do a great deal to reduce all forms of environmental degradation, including tropical deforestation.

This paper argues that quantitative models that seek to explain tropical deforestation have several statistical problems. Furthermore, global market relations, determined by the market needs of the North, do not take ecological differences into account and thus lead to environmental stress. In tropical Latin America, land hunger and poverty are the probable explanations for deforestation. In tropical Asia, perhaps the dominant explanation for deforestation is land conversion and hence again land hunger. On the policy front, alleviating poverty in the South will do much to reduce all forms of environmental degradation, including tropical deforestation.