Population and deforestation

This chapter contributes to clarifying the role of population in the most acute tropical deforestation processes. Different schools of thought have existed concerning the role of human population pressure on economic development, environment and tropical deforestation. The system causality model of deforestation has so far been partly supported by empirical research, although the integrated empirical testing remains problematic. The system causality model of deforestation resembles what John Stuart Mill one and half centuries ago called “chemical causation”. The different socio-economic context and the level of technology have affected the industrialized countries in their transition from deforestation to sustainable forestry. The Republic of Korea is among the few Asian countries which have recently been able to go from a deforestation stage into a sustainable forestry stage. Denmark and the United Kingdom are examples of countries that were once totally forest covered, but by the 19th century were practically totally deforested.

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