Economic development, deforestation, and fuelwood management

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the causes of deforestation at a macro level and explore possible solutions at a micro level. The first essay is a study of the rate of deforestation in sixty-four developing countries from which we can discern the importance of population pressures and per capita income. The second is a simulation of woodfuel extraction outside N'Djamena, Chad, which evaluates the effect of government policies to promote sustainable harvesting of fuelwood on the stock of biomass and cost of supplying fuelwood.;In the first study, indicators of environmental quality are linked to per capita GDP, population pressures and wood prices. A fixed-effects regression of sixty-four different countries from 1961 to 1988 is estimated using these variables to proxy factors influencing the conversion of land to agriculture. The level of per capita GDP is positive and significant, while its square is negative and significant for Africa and Latin America. The implication is that the rate of deforestation is rising, but at a decreasing rate as a country develops. To explain this phenomenon, a more formal model of deforestation is developed. Although the coefficients are substantially harder to interpret in this formal model, the same concave relationship between per capita income and deforestation is found for Africa and Latin America.;The second study analyzes the impact of policies to promote optimal management of fuelwood resources near the capital city of Chad. The study uses a von Thunen framework to analyze the supply of fuelwood to N'Djamena. The policy option of giving villages property rights is analyzed and a formal model is offered to contrast open access exploitation with the establishment of optimally managed production zones. Various assumptions are made about the rate of extraction and regeneration under each scenario. The models are simulated over a twenty-two year period. The results suggest that production zones may be economically feasible, but the feasibility is sensitive to the rate of regeneration. Even if the assignment of property rights will not increase producer surplus from fuelwood production the policy may be justified in that it increases the stock of biomass.