Forest dynamics and ecosystem collapse in open-access problems

Kelly Cobourn, Gregory Amacher, Philippe Delacote () and Hayou Wang
Additional contact information
Kelly Cobourn: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [Blacksburg]
Gregory Amacher: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [Blacksburg]
Philippe Delacote: BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - AgroParisTech - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CEC - Chaire Economie du Climat - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres
Hayou Wang: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [Blacksburg]

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Changes like the shift of tropical forests into savannah in the Amazon highlight the potential for deforestation to drive ecosystems past potentially irreversible tipping points. Reforestation may avert or delay tipping points, but its success depends on the degree to which secondary and primary forests are substitutes in the production of ecosystem services. This article explores how deforestation, reforestation and substitutability between forest types affect the likelihood that a forest system will cross a tipping point. Efforts to ensure that secondary forests better mimic primary forests only yield a small improvement in terms of delaying ecosystem collapse. The most significant effects on tipping points arise from an increase in the relative costs of clearing primary forests or a decrease in the costs of protecting land tenure in secondary forests. Our results highlight the importance of the latter, which are often ignored as a policy target, to reduce the risk of ecosystem collapse.

Keywords: Tipping points; Savannization; Ecological threshold; Deforestation; Brazilian Amazon (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-08-29
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Environment and Development Economics, 2025, pp.1-20. ⟨10.1017/S1355770X25100089⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05650662

DOI: 10.1017/S1355770X25100089

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().