Does Economic Growth Cause Environmental Recovery? Geographical Explanations of Forest Regrowth

Abstract

AbstractThis study examines the links between economic change and environmental recovery. We first review the influential framework known as Forest Transition Theory (FTT), which uses the experience of the North to posit a causal linkage between economic growth and forest regrowth. We then lay out problems with this theory and offer an alternative. Our central argument is that FTT provides faulty explanations of forest regrowth because it treats economic development as a characteristic of places. Drawing from geographical scholarship that sees economic development as occurring through dynamic relationships among places, we contend instead that forest regrowth in the North is due not to a universal process of economic development, but rather reflects the ability of wealthy regions to import forest and agricultural products, thereby exporting environmental impact. Economic growth, therefore, cannot be prescribed as a universal catalyst for environmental recovery because any such recovery relies on degradation elsewhere. Future research on forest regrowth should investigate multiple environment–economy relationships that both create and depend on differences among places.