Land Use: Forest, Agriculture, and Biodiversity Competition

Author

Roger Sedjo (sedjo@rff.org) and R. David Simpson

Chapter 59 in Handbook of Agricultural Economics, 2007, vol. 3, pp 2979-3007 from Elsevier

Abstract: Since at least the time of von Thunen's contributions to the subject, economists have been interested in explaining land use in the hinterlands. This interest has grown with increasing societal demands on remaining forested areas and concern for the nonmarket resources generated by such habitats. However, the situation is not nearly as dire as one might expect based on the more alarming pronouncements. Despite both economic and population growth, forest areas in much of the developed world have been increasing, not declining. Improvements in growing and processing technology, in combination with increased concern for forest resources, have enabled increases in productivity that have largely offset growth in demand. While the record has not been quite as good in the developing countries, productivity growth and a slowing in the rate of population increase are also reducing pressures on forests in poorer nations. While these trends are promising, concern remains with the decline in natural habitats, particularly in moist tropical forests, where biological diversity is most concentrated. Biologists and conservation advocates have advanced a number of arguments both that "biodiversity" is imperiled as forests are felled and that the values of the services generated by such systems justify their preservation. While often plausible, these arguments remain largely unproved. It seems unlikely that prospects for commercializing the products and services of forest ecosystems will prove sufficient to motivate their conservation on a large scale. Other instruments for conservation must, then, be employed if areas under intense pressure for conversion are to be preserved.

Keywords: Farmers; Farm Production and Farm Markets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
ISBN: 0-444-51873-8
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B7P5B ... b9bf18d32740c7496b4c
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:hagchp:5-59

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Handbook of Agricultural Economics from Elsevier
Series data maintained by Dana Niculescu (repec@elsevier.com).

For further details log on website :
http://econpapers.repec.org/bookchap/eeehagchp/5-59.htm