Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to review Latin American forest resources, to find out the underlying causes of deforestation in the tropical zone of this continent and to analyze the prospects for deforestation and sustainable forest management. In the forest resources description, Latin America is clustered in three regions, but frequently Brazil is analyzed as a separate entity due to its vast extension and prominent position in the continent. The natural forests of Latin America covered an area of approximately 960 million hectares in 1990. This vast area represents the largest closed broadleaved forest reserve of the world. The characteristics and approximate location of five major types of forests are presented. In 1981–1990 the annual average tropical deforestation area in the continent was 7.7 million hectares, the largest in the developing world. Eight models for explaining deforestation were estimated. Evidences were found for determining that growing population pressure is increasing deforestation. In addition, increasing incomes, deforestation costs and deforestation risks lead to decreasing deforestation. We made three simple scenario models. According to these scenarios a reduction of 21–28% of the total forest area of 1990 could be expected until the year 2020.
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Palo, M., Mery, G., Lehto, E. (1996). Latin American Deforestation and Sustainability Prospects. In: Palo, M., Mery, G. (eds) Sustainable Forestry Challenges for Developing Countries. Environmental Science and Technology Library, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1588-6_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1588-6_12
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