Demographic and Ecological Factors in FAO Tropical Deforestation Modelling

Abstract

Tropical forests of developing countries, perceived by the public opinion in developed countries as goods to be preserved, are essential resources to be exploited from the internal point of view. Population growth and initial economic development requires space, and are associated with some degree of deforestation. Local ecological characteristics, which heavily condition agricultural practices and productivity, directly influence clearance requirements. The limited information concerning deforestation trends in the available tropical forest inventories, provides a basis for analyzing the influence of ecological characteristics on the deforestation impact of population growth. The research has been executed in the frame of FAO project Forest Resources Assessment 1990, which provides the standardization model required to finalize the tropical developing countries assessment.