A review of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for deforestation policy in Bangladesh

Abstract

Deforestation in the tropical developing countries is the critical environmental concern to ecologists and environmentalists. Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is critical to understanding the development path of a nation in relevance to its environment. The dictation of national economic growth to deforestation can be found through the study of EKC. To understand the EKC phenomena for deforestation, the study was undertaken through reviewing the literature. With the understanding of the different EKC trajectories for deforestation, an attempt was made to implicate the economic development of Bangladesh with the EKC. The proven EKC trajectories for deforestation in some regions/countries show a higher income per capita requirement for the turning point. The study suggests that tunneling in the EKC trajectory for Bangladesh would be favorable. The type of economic and forest policy that Bangladesh should follow to retard deforestation is also revealed. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) have been suggested for tunneling the EKC in Bangladesh. The findings of the study are expected to contribute to the environmental development of Bangladesh

The linkages between deforestation, energy and growth for environmental degradation in Pakistan

“…The hypothetic analysis of deforestation and growth indicators have mainly been focused on cross-country and panel-data approaches. However, recently, after recognizing the environmental issues, there are some developing countries that have been studied using the EKC hypothesis (Miah et al, 2011;Naito and Traesupap, 2014) on Bangladesh and Thailand, respectively.…”

Causes, Mechanisms and Outcomes of Environmental Degradation in Bangladesh: a Study in Sylhet

“…Deforestation, a major phenomenon of environmental degradation is a product of national economic growth 83) . Studies found that national economic growth affects tropical deforestation 84,85) .…”

Community Forestry for Sustainable Forest Management: Experiences from Bangladesh and Policy Recommendations

“…Furthermore, widespread corruption and poor governance in the forestry sector (Muhammed et al, 2008) is hindering the progress of social forestry programs. In addition to eliminated corruption, Miah et al (2011) suggest greater political will is needed to support community forestry, as well as initiatives that bridge the gap between policy, science, and practice. They also note many regulatory policies and measures are too vague to be of much use, creating loopholes that lead to abuse.…”