According to FAO, poverty and overpopulation are believed to be the main indirect causes of forest loss. As population grows the demand for food also increases. With growth in population, more people means more food and space requirement whereby more land for agriculture and habitation are required resulting in more clearing of forests. However, overpopulation is not a problem exclusive to Third World countries. Any individual in an industrialized country is more likely to consume in the order of sixty times as much of the world’s resources as a person in an under-developed country. The growing populations in rich industrialized nations are therefore responsible for much of the exploitation of the earth’s resources and to that effect there
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Cultivators at the forest frontier often do not hold titles to land or forests (in the absence of property rights) and are displaced by those who gain tenure over the land they occupy (Mather, 1991; Deacon, 1999; Sands, 2005). To this end, they have to clear more natural forest cover to survive. Any land tenure that is poorly defined is generally bad for people depending on forest resources and for forests as well (Chomitz et al., 2007). In many countries government have nominal control of forests but are too weak to effectively regulate their use. This can lead to a tragedy of the commons where forest resources are degraded. In frontier areas deforestation is a common practice and legalized way of declaring claim to land and securing tenure (Schneider, …show more content…
For poor and rural households, natural resources become natural assets when open access to natural resources is assured, either through asset ownership or other forms of secure access and control. Natural capital or in other words, natural assets, are often considered one of the five forms of capital, the others being financial capital, physical capital, social capital, and human capital (Carney, 1998). Those rural poor people who lack access to natural capital and other forms of capital are challenged on many fronts, say, acquiring food, accumulating assets and responding to certain shocks and misfortune (Baumann,
Cultivators at the forest frontier often do not hold titles to land or forests (in the absence of property rights) and are displaced by those who gain tenure over the land they occupy (Mather, 1991; Deacon, 1999; Sands, 2005). To this end, they have to clear more natural forest cover to survive. Any land tenure that is poorly defined is generally bad for people depending on forest resources and for forests as well (Chomitz et al., 2007). In many countries government have nominal control of forests but are too weak to effectively regulate their use. This can lead to a tragedy of the commons where forest resources are degraded. In frontier areas deforestation is a common practice and legalized way of declaring claim to land and securing tenure (Schneider, …show more content…
For poor and rural households, natural resources become natural assets when open access to natural resources is assured, either through asset ownership or other forms of secure access and control. Natural capital or in other words, natural assets, are often considered one of the five forms of capital, the others being financial capital, physical capital, social capital, and human capital (Carney, 1998). Those rural poor people who lack access to natural capital and other forms of capital are challenged on many fronts, say, acquiring food, accumulating assets and responding to certain shocks and misfortune (Baumann,