In what ways does the state directly on indirectly encourage deforestation particularly of the rainfor.est? can you please give examples of the specific policies and their effects.
Thanks.
First show that there even is deforestation of the rainforests. Without a demand for wood, most of those trees wouldn’t have been planted in the first place.
Just to get the ball rolling
Most African countries (particularly the aptly named Democratic Republic of Congo) have extremely strict legislature regulating logging. Again, this is done to appease foreign donors and to milk foreign logging companies as much as possible. Buy my wife that Cartier watch she wants for her birthday and I will conveniently forget you did cut tek in that restricted area… you know the drill. Nothing new under the Sun.
One of the reasons Africa’s natural resources have been so merciless exploited is the lack of complete respect of property rights permeating governments and whole sectors of society. If I remember correctly Rothbard wrote some pretty good material about this. A privately owned parcel of forest will invariably be better administered than public forest which belongs to everybody and nobody. The owners would have every interest in maximizing their profits by carefully husbanding their resources and not simply strip logging the place bare. After all they cannot simply sell concessions in another part of the country.
The only parts of Africa were threatened or critically endangered species are recovering are privately owned hunting reserves. Of course the WWF, Greenpeace and all the green crowd doesn’t want you to know that greedy private enterpreneurs have a much better environmental record than the State they adore so much. The big problem is Africa is so damn volatile and in such bad state there are very few countries were opening up similar reserves is advisable. Even if you bribe the local government into compliance they can be ousted by a coup or, even worse, they can simply turn on you during the periodic “let’s expropriate private property to make my cronies happy” outbreaks.
I think the two biggest destroyers of natural environments in the world are:Government Ownership and its partner in destruction Agricultural subsidies. I can not identify a single law but the oil spill by BP with its love fest with the MMA (Maybe not love but certainly sexually natured.) is a great example of the destruction of nature while at the same time the damage done with subsidizing BP by giving them preferences on contracts.
The politicians that decide what to do with forests have only an interest in current income, not future income past their probable time in office. In some places clear-cutting is mandated for fast-growth policies.
That’s why saving is bad and spending is good. Cannibalize capital goods to boost GDP numbers temporarily.