Population growth, human development, and deforestation in biodiversity hotspots.

Full Abstract

Human population and development activities affect the rate of deforestation in biodiversity hotspots. We quantified the effect of human population growth and development on rates of deforestation and analyzed the relationship between these causal factors in the 1980s and 1990s. We compared the averages of population growth, human development index (HDI, which measures income, health, and education), and deforestation rate and computed correlations among these variables for countries that contain biodiversity hotspots. When population growth was high and HDI was low there was a high rate of deforestation, but when HDI was high, rate of deforestation was low, despite high population growth. The correlation among variables was significant for the 1990s but not for the 1980s. The relationship between population growth and HDI had a regional pattern that reflected the historical process of development. Based on the changes in HDI and deforestation rate over time, we identified two drivers of deforestation:
policy choice and human-development constraints. Policy choices that disregard conservation may cause the loss of forests even in countries that are relatively developed. Lack of development in other countries, on the other hand, may increase the pressure on forests to meet the basic needs of the human population. Deforestation resulting from policy choices may be easier to fix than deforestation arising from human development constraints. To prevent deforestation in the countries that have such constraints, transfer of material and intellectual resources from developed countries may be needed. Popular interest in sustainable development in developed countries can facilitate the transfer of these resources.

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Author information

Author/s: Jha, S (S); Bawa, K S (KS);

Affiliation: Indian Forest Service, New Delhi, India. sjha21(-atsign-)yahoo.com

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology (Conserv Biol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Jun; vol 20 (issue 3) : pp 906-12

Dates: Created 2006/08/16; Completed 2006/09/26; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 16909582, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Animals
Biodiversity
Conservation of Natural Resources - methods

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