Deforestation and forest transition: Implications for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD)

International attention is focussed on ways to reduce emissions from deforestation because of the emerging concerns over climate change. However the causes of deforestation are rooted in current economic and development paradigms. The causes of deforestation also vary in different geographical regions and they have implications for the forest transitions. Attempts to reach an international agreement on reducing tropical deforestation have to date achieved little despite over thirty years of UN negotiations. The reasons for the previous unsuccessful attempts are partly due to the different motivations of the economically developed, mainly previously deforested, nations who see the tropical forests as providing a global service, and the poorer, now deforesting nations, who see them as a national resource to be exploited as a means to development. Until now the financial support on offer has not been sufficient for the deforesting nations to abandon agriculture- or timber- driven development, and that new initiatives under the UN-REDD policies (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) could provide sufficient incentives to forest nations to curb deforestation. The possible forest transition paths are examined for countries of Latin American, African and Asian regions by estimating an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) relationship between income per capita and the rate of deforestation. The EKC estimates and evidence for the causes of deforestation are discussed as measures for designing the goals of REDD policy. The possible paths of forest transition are considered when tunnelling the EKC with REDD policy.