Population, development and tropical deforestation: a cross-national study
Thomas Rudel
Abstract
The ecological perspective identifies growing populations of peasant or subsistence cultivators as the chief cause of tropical deforestation. The second perspective on the causes of tropical deforestation is the political-economic one. Cross-national data on tropical deforestation are found in two data sets, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) production data and data from an FAO-United Nations Environmental Program study. A cross-national study which includes African, Asian, and Latin American countries promises to add breadth to the depth of understanding available in the case studies. If the same study can provide partial tests of the adequacy of the population-growth and capital-availability explanations for deforestation, it should enhance the understanding of the causes of tropical deforestation. In a number of well known instances expansion in export agriculture has spurred tropical deforestation. Governments or private investors spend money on infrastructure, such as roads which open up regions for settlement and deforestation.