Abstract
This paper examines the pantropical causes underlying tropical deforestation phenomenon. Forest resource data represent 67 tropical countries, of which 35 in Africa, 20 in Latin America, and 12 in Asia. The total number of 477 observations from subnational geographical units are used for modeling stock variables. Change variables were available from 13 countries with a total of 54 observations. The empirical data are based on the original random year panel observations of FAO FORIS database from 1953 to 1991. Multiple regression analysis with ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation was applied. Modeling was made with ten different dependent variables. Nonforest area variables were found to be inferior to forest area based variables in the pantropical data. Change (forest area decrease) variables were also used to test the validity of stock variables. Both were found operational but change variables are available only in limited supply. National and subnational population pressure and national income (GDP) were found to be the most important factors causing deforestation at the subnational level. The subnational and national populations are considered to reflect the direct and indirect effects of population pressure on deforestation. Furthermore, the results suggest that ecological conditions, as well as the reliability of data, play relevant roles in deforestation.
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Palo, M., Lehto, E., Uusivuori, J. (2000). Modeling Causes of Deforestation with 477 Subnational Units. In: Palo, M., Vanhanen, H. (eds) World Forests from Deforestation to Transition?. World Forests, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0942-3_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0942-3_6
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