Jonah Busch and Kalifi Ferretti-Gallon Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 2017, vol. 11, issue 1, 3-23 Abstract:This article presents a meta-analysis of what drives deforestation and what stops it, based on a comprehensive database of 121 spatially explicit econometric studies of deforestation published in peer-reviewed academic journals from 1996 to 2013. We found that forests are more likely to be cleared in locations where the economic returns to agriculture are higher, due to either more favorable climatologic and topographic conditions or lower costs of clearing forests and transporting products to markets. Timber activity, land tenure security, community forest management, and community demographics are not consistently associated with either higher or lower deforestation. Population is consistently associated with greater deforestation and poverty is consistently associated with lower deforestation. However, in both cases it is difficult to infer a causal link because of endogeneity. Based on the results of the meta-analysis, we suggest promising approaches for stopping deforestation, including reducing the expansion of road networks into remote forested areas, targeting protected areas in regions where forests face a greater threat, and insulating the forest frontier from the demand for agricultural commodities. There is preliminary evidence that enforcing forest protection laws, supporting continued forest management by indigenous peoples, and payments for ecosystem services (PES) may also stop deforestation. JEL-codes: Q11 Q15 Q23 Q24 (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:renvpo:v:11:y:2017:i:1:p:3-23. Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Review of Environmental Economics and Policy is currently edited by Robert Stavins More articles in Review of Environmental Economics and Policy from Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Contact information at EDIRC. |
