The Cultural Roots of Deforestation in Africa

Nicolas Berman (), Mathieu Couttenier and Raphael Soubeyran
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Nicolas Berman: Aix-Marseille Univ., CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France, https://www.amse-aixmarseille.fr/en/members/berman
Mathieu Couttenier: ENS de Lyon, Center for Economic Research on Governance, Inequality and Conflict, CNRS and CEPR
Raphael Soubeyran: CEE-M, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, INRAE, Institut Agro, Montpellier, France

No 2537, AMSE Working Papers from Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France

Abstract: We study the relationship between culture and environmental conservation through the lens of deforestation. Focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa over the period 2001- 2021, we show that changes of national leaders affect deforestation in a way that depends on the environmental culture of their ethnic group’s. We use data on folklore to measure the importance of forests in group-specific culture. We find that deforestation and land-intensive activities increase in the ethnic homelands of leaders whose ethnic groups have no or little forest-related culture. These patterns are reversed when the leader’s group has a salient forest culture. Our results suggest that culture is an important lever for environmental conservation in Africa.

Keywords: Culture; Deforestation; Politics; Folklore; ethnicity; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D7 J15 Q5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2025-12
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2537

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