Unsustainable timber harvesting, deforestation and the role of certification

Olivier Damette and Philippe Delacote

Ecological Economics, 2011, vol. 70, issue 6, 1211-1219

Abstract: Deforestation is a major environmental issue, while demand for timber products increases rapidly in the developing world. One can thus wonder whether forest harvesting is sustainable worldwide, or if demand for timber products is fulfilled with the products from deforestation. Our panel data analysis shows that countries where timber harvesting is more important tend to experience larger deforestation rates than others, giving the intuition that forest harvesting is generally not sustainable. We also show that timber certification is negatively related to deforestation and thus seems to be a good indicator of harvesting sustainability.

Keywords: Timber; harvesting; Tropical; forest; Deforestation; Certification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

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Working Paper: Unsustainable timber harvesting, deforestation and the role of certification (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:70:y:2011:i:6:p:1211-1219

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