Richard J. Culas
School of Agriculture and Wine Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Orange, Australia

Series: Environmental Remediation Technologies, Regulations and Safety
BISAC: SCI026000

International attention is focused 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. (Imprint: Nova)