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Journal #J-12/1999
Why do farmers expand their land into forests?
Theories and evidence from Tanzania
Arild Angelsen, Eric F.K. Shitindi(1) & Jostein Aarestad (2)
Department of Economics & Reesource Management
Agricultural University of Norway
PO Box 5033, N-1432 Ås, Norway
http://www.nlh.no/ior/
e-mail: arild.angelsen@ior.nlh.no

(1) Eric F.K. Shitindi is at the Dept. of Policy Analysis and Research Units, Tanzania

(2) Jostein Aarestad is at the Dept. of Economics, University of Bergen, (http://hermes.svf.uib.no/econ/  )

Angelsen, A., Eric F.K. Shitindi & J. Aarestad (1999): "Why do farmers expand their land into forests? Theories and evidence from Tanzania", Environment and Development Economics, 4:313-331.

Abstract:
This paper examines the causes of agricultural land expansion and deforestation in Tanzania. In the theoretical section, two different - and partly contradicting - sets of hypotheses are outlined. These are based on a subsistence approach, emphasising the food or income requirements of farm households, and a market approach, focussing on the relative profitability of agriculture. The statistical analysis shows that increased agricultural output prices, in particular for annual crops, is a major factor behind agricultural expansion. An increase of 1% in output prices leads to about 1% increase in agricultural area. Other factors such as input prices, technology and economic growth are tested and discussed, but the conclusions are less robust. The controversial role of population growth in explaining deforestation is addressed. Generally the results lend support to the market rather than the subsistence approach.

Key words: Deforestation, agriculture, Tanzania, panel data.

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Institutt for økonomi og ressursforvaltning
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