Abstract
During the past century forests have expanded in three ways, through spontaneously regenerated secondary forests, planted forest monocultures, and planted but biodiverse household agro-forests. Each type of forest emerges out of a distinct human geographical situation. Forests regenerate spontaneously, usually after people have left the land for one reason or another. Forest plantations frequently occupy landscapes where a few landowners control much of the land. Finally, agro-forests sprout in densely populated, smallholder dominated landscapes close to urban markets. This chapter describes each set of forest generating circumstances and the associated sets of causal conditions in some detail, paying particular attention to the human geographical forces that continue to drive spontaneous reforestation in some places at the same time that they have induced people to plant trees (promoted reforestation) in other places. A final section describes policy initiatives that would encourage or expedite the expansion of forests.
Keywords
- Secondary Forest
- Clean Development Mechanism
- Forest Plantation
- Environmental Kuznets Curve
- Clean Development Mechanism Project
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Aide M, Grau H (2004) Globalization, migration, and Latin American ecosystems. Science 305(24 September):1915–1916
Angelsen A, Kaimowitz D (2001) Agricultural technologies and tropical deforestation. CAB International, Wallingford
Barraclough S, Collarte J (1973) Agrarian structure in Latin America: a resume of the CIDA land tenure studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Peru. Lexington Books, Lexington, MA
Bentley J (1989) Bread forests and new fields: the ecology of reforestation and forest clearing among small woodland owners in Portugal. J For Hist 17:188–195
Boyd E, Gutierrez M, Chang M (2007) Small-scale forest carbon projects: adapting CDM to low-income communities. Glob Environ Chang 17:250–259
Cavendish W (2000) Empirical regularities in the poverty–environment relationship of rural households: evidence from Zimbabwe. World Dev 28:1979–2003
Chomitz K (2007) At loggerheads? Agricultural expansion, poverty reduction, and environment in tropical forests. World Bank, Washington, DC
CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research) (2007) Carbofor: CIFOR’s Carbon Forestry Research. Accessed at http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/carbofor, May, 2007
Collins J (1988) Unseasonal migrations: the social causes of environmental destruction. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
Crosby A (2003) The Columbian exchange: biological and cultural consequences of 1492, 2nd edn. Greenwood, Westport, CT
Del Lungo A, Vuorinen P, Carle J (2001) Preliminary analysis of global trends in forest plantation development, 1980–2000. FAO, Rome
Downton M (1995) Measuring tropical deforestation: development of the methods. Environ Conserv 22:229–240
Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (2005) Forest Resources Assessment, 2005. Forestry Division, Rome. Accessed at www.fao.org/forestry/fra2005. May, 2007
Foster A, Rosenzweig M (2003) Economic growth and the rise of forests. Q J Econ 118:601–637
Goldthwait J (1927) A town that has gone downhill. Geogr Rev 17:527–552
Grainger A (2008) Difficulties in tracking the long-term global trend in tropical forest area. Proc Natl Acad Sci 105:818–823
Herlihy D (1997) The black death and the transformation of the West. Harvard, Cambridge, MA
Holmgren P, Masakha E, Sjoholm H (1994) Not all African land is being degraded: a recent survey of trees on farms in Kenya reveals rapidly increasing forest resources. Ambio 23:390–395
Hussain T, Bibi P, Kaushal P (1999) We are all part of the same ‘Kudrat’: community forest management in Rajaji National Park. For Trees People 38:35–38
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (2007) Working group 1 report: the physical science basis. Accessed at http://www.ipcc.ch/WG1_SPM_17Apr07.pdf. May 2007
Kohlin G, Parks P (2001) Spatial variability and disincentives to harvest: deforestation and fuelwood collection in South Asia. Land Econ 77:206–218
Lee H, McCarl B, Schneider U, Chen C (2004) Leakage and comparative advantage implications of agricultural participation in greenhouse gas emission mitigation. UWO Department of Economics Working Papers. University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
Lugo A (1992) Comparison of tropical tree plantations with secondary forests of similar age. Ecol Monogr 62:1–41
Marchak P (1995) Logging the globe. McGill-Queens University Press, Montreal
Mather A (2007) Recent Asian forest transitions in relation to forest transition theory. Int For Rev 9:491–502
Mather A, Needle C (1998) The forest transition: a theoretical basis. Area 30:117–124
McPeak J, Barrett C (2001) Differential risk exposure and stochastic poverty traps among East African pastoralists. Am J Ag Econ 83:674–679
Muller D, Zeller M (2002) Land use dynamics in the central highlands of Vietnam: a spatial model combining village survey data with satellite imagery interpretation. Ag Econ 27:333–354
Poffenberger M, McGean B, Khare A (1996) Communities sustaining India’s forests in the twenty-first century. In: Poffenberger M, McGean B (eds), Village voices, forest choices: Joint Forest Management in India. Oxford, Delhi
Poos L (1991) A rural society after the black death: Essex 1350–1525. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
Rocheleau D, Ross L, Morrobel J, Malaret L, Hernandez R, Kominiak T (2001) Complex communities and emergent ecologies in the regional agroforest of Zambrana-Chacuey, Dominican Republic. Ecumene 8:465–492
Rudel T (2001) Did a green revolution restore the forests of the American South? In: Angelsen A, Kaimowitz D (eds) Agricultural technologies and tropical deforestation. CAB International, Wallingford
Rudel T (2005) Tropical forests: regional paths of destruction and regeneration in the late twentieth century. Columbia University Press, New York
Rudel T, Coomes O, Moran E, Achard F, Angelsen A, Xu J, Lambin E (2005) Forest transitions: towards a global understanding of land use change. Glob Environ Chang 15:23–31
Rudel T, Fu C (1996) A requiem for the southern regionalists: reforestation in the South and the uses of regional social science. Soc Scienc Q 77:804–820
Rudel T, Perez-Lugo M, Zichal H (2000) When fields revert to forests: development and spontaneous reforestation in post-war Puerto Rico. Prof Geogr 52:386–397
Shively G, Martinez E (2001) Deforestation, irrigation, employment, and cautious optimism in southern Palawan, the Philippines. In: Angelsen A, Kaimowitz D (eds) Agricultural technologies and tropical deforestation. CAB International, Wallingford, UK
Singh N (2002) Federations of community forest management groups in Orissa: crafting new institutions to assert local rights. For Trees People. #46.
Slicher Van Bath B (1966) The agrarian history of western Europe, a.d. Edward Arnold, London, pp 500–1850
Smith N, Alvim P, Serrão E, Falesi I (1995) Amazonia. In: Kasperson J, Kasperson R, Turner B (eds) Regions at risk: comparisons of threatened environments. United Nations University Press, Tokyo
Stern D, Common M, Barbier E (1996) Economic growth and environmental degradation: the environmental Kuznets curve and sustainable development. World Dev 24:1151–60
Tachibana T, Nguyen T, Otsuka K (2001) Agricultural intensification versus extensification: a case study of deforestation in the northern hill region of Vietnam. J Environ Econ Manage 41:44–69
Tiffen M, Mortimore M, Gichuki F (1994) More people, less erosion: Environmental environmental recovery in Kenya. Wiley, New York
Wily L (2002) The political economy of community forestry in Africa – getting the power relations right. For Trees People. #46
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rudel, T.K. (2009). Three Paths to Forest Expansion: A Comparative Historical Analysis. In: Nagendra, H., Southworth, J. (eds) Reforesting Landscapes. Landscape Series, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9656-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9656-3_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-9655-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-9656-3
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)