DEFORESTATION AND HUMAN ACTIVITY: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

References: 17th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2017, www.sgem.org, SGEM2017 Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7408-10-2 / ISSN 1314-2704, 29 June - 5 July, 2017, Vol. 17, Issue 53, 165-172 pp, DOI: 10.5593/sgem2017/53/S21.021

ABSTRACT

The issue of preserving and protecting forests in the face of increasing human activity was presented as very up-to-date. Irrational human activity and fires have led to deforestation of places, once completely covered with forests. The area of tropical forests in Africa has decreased by 70 percent, South America – by 60 percent, only 8 percent of Chinese territory is covered with forest. The article briefly examines the process of degradation of forest resources in the global economy. This study explores the long-run interdependence among deforestation and human activity in the global economy. Based on panel data for the period of 1990-2015, the constructed model is used to investigate the influence of human activity on deforestation. Various panel data unit root and co-integration tests are also applied. Forest area, gross domestic product (GDP), wood and paper production and population series are integrated of order one and co-integrated. We examine the stationary properties of individual series in panel datasets using different panel unit root tests. The relationship using ARDL (autoregressive distributed lags) model is developed. We actualize the problem of preservation and protection of forests under conditions of the increasing industrial activity in the focus of modern regional and global climate changes.

Keywords: ecology, environment, deforestation, human development