THE PATHS TO RAIN-FOREST DESTRUCTION - CROSSNATIONAL PATTERNS OF TROPICAL DEFORESTATION, 1975-90

Recently published, crossnational data on tropical deforestation vary in quality, but with appropriate safeguards they can be used to analyz e the causes of tropical deforestation. We use these data to assess th e major explanations for tropical deforestation during 1975-90. One se t of explanations, which we label frontier theory, identifies entrepre neurs, companies, and small farmers, working in concert, as the chief agents of deforestation. A second set of explanations, which we call i mmiserization theory, attributes most deforestation to expanding peasa nt populations who have few other economic opportunities and therefore decide to clear additional land for agriculture. The quantitative ana lysis suggests that frontier theory described deforestation in places with large forests and immiserization theory describes deforestation i n plates with small forests. Policies to reduce deforestation should v ary in their effectiveness depending on which of these two processes p redominates in a place. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd