A MODEL OF SUSTAINABLE EXTRACTION OF NONTIMBER FOREST PRODUCTS IN SUBSISTENCE SOCIETIES

The shrinking forest in many parts of the world is a problem often bla med on the patterns of ownership and harvesting by the resource owners . We develop a model which demonstrates that holding a resource in com mon where there is competition among individuals leads to inefficient harvesting of the resource but cannot lead to the destruction of fores ts. The same model is used to demonstrate that climatic conditions, lo w wage rates, and increases in the number of people entitled to harves t the resource are more-likely candidates for variables explaining the destruction of the forest. Examples taken from the Sudan and from Chi na provide evidence that communities alter their pattern of ownership and migration so that they do not exhaust the resource. The main concl usion of the paper is that the behavior of the owners of the resource is not the underlying cause of the destruction of the forest.