The purpose of this lecture note is to summarise different research results about the impact of macro-level factors and “extra-sectoral” policies on tropical forest cover. Specifically, we are interested in the forest margins – i.e. the spatial transition zone between tropical forests and converted land uses. What are the policy factors that accelerate frontier expansion, and which ones tend to slow it down? The main objectives are: a. To learn how different changes related to trade and macroeconomic policies affect the loss of frontier forests, i.e. to understand both the likely direction and weight of these factors in influencing the speed of forest conversion; b. To comprehend trade-offs and synergies between policies for natural-forest conservation and those designed to promote economic development; c. To appreciate these linkages in the light of a few micro- and macro-level examples. A key finding is that what happens to tropical forests is more determined by events outside the forest arena than by what happens inside the forest sector. In other words, the extra-sectoral impacts will often be more important than, for instance, the new forest law, the participatory tree planting project or the environmental education programme that is implemented at the forest margins. That does not necessarily mean that forestry interventions are not effective. What it does mean is that some macroeconomic and extra-forestry factors tend to set the scene for success or failure of the projects and strategies of forest margin stabilisation, so that the promoters of these strategies need to have a realistic vision about the direction and proportions of impacts. In some cases, the macro decision makers should also explicitly take into account how forests are affected before they make their “extra-sectoral”, macro-level choices.
Tag: macroeconomics
Oil wealth and the fate of forest: a comparative study of eight tropical countries
Oil production can damage rainforests, but this is just one side of a complicated story about the impact of oil on land use. This book a study of eight tropical oil-producing countries, examines the linkages between trade, macroeconomics and policies affecting the environment. In a balanced and comprehensive review, including a detailed assessment of land use in Cameroon, Ecuador, Gabon, Papua New Guinea and Venezuela, the author comes up with a counterintuitive suggestion: oil revenues often indirectly come to protect tropical forests. There are numerous implications for policy formulation to decide what can be done to diminish deforestation without jeopardising economic growth.
Oil, macroeconomics, and forests
How does an oil boom affect the forest cover of tropical oil exporting-countries? Are they more or less likely than non-oil countries to experience forest loss? What macro-economic linkages and policies are decisive? This article summarises research on land-use changes in eight tropical developing countries. Our country-comparative approach reveals that the direct oil impacts on forests are unquestionably subordinate compared to oil’s derived macroeconomic impact. In most cases, oil wealth indirectly but significantly comes to protect tropical forests. The core mechanism here is that oil rents cause ‘Dutch Disease’, decreasing the price-competitiveness of agriculture and logging, which strongly diminishes pressures for deforestation and forest degradation. But domestic policy responses to oil wealth are also vital determinants for the forest outcome. When governments use most oil wealth for urban spending sprees, this reinforces the core effect by pulling more labor out of land-using and forest-degrading activities. Yet, in extreme cases when boosting oil revenues finance large road-construction programs or frontier-colonization projects, the core forest-protective effect of oil wealth can be reversed. Repeated currency devaluation and import protection of heavily land-using domestic sectors also contribute to increased forest pressures. These conclusions have ample policy implications, reaching beyond the group of tropical oil countries. Other international capital transfers, like bilateral credits, aid or debt relief can have similar impacts. These measures will alleviate pressures on forests, unless they come to bolster specific forest-detrimental policies. This also provides some suggestions on what forest-friendly safeguards could realistically be taken in the design of structural adjustment programs, considering the important trade-offs between development and conservation objectives.