china eeu sweden | Forestry

Economic Growth and the Natural Environment: The Example of China and Its Forests since 1978

Forest data from the recent period of rapid growth in China show interesting macroeconomic and population impacts on the forest. It makes a theoretical argument for separating forests into managed and natural forests, administered by state or private agents. The paper’s regressions suggest that declining rural populations accompany forest recovery and that natural forest is first drawn down as incomes rise, but then recovers when incomes continue to increase above some level.

As incomes rises even further, the managed forest grows more rapidly, offsetting any draw on the natural forest, with an aggregate net expansion for managed and natural forests combined. The question arises whether other forests across the globe would show these results if comparable forest data were available.

EfD Authors

Keywords

Files

Centers

  • china
  • eeu sweden

Type of publication

  • EfD Discussion paper

Reference

William F. Hyde, Jiegen Wei, and Jintao Xu, "Economic Growth and the Natural Environment: The Example of China and Its Forests since 1978", EfD Discussion Paper 08-11, a joint publication of the Environment for Development Initiative and Resources for the Future (www.rff.org), Washington DC. April 2008.

Publications

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