An Overview of Theoretical and Empirical Studies on Deforestation <Review>

Deforestation is one of the critical issues in our global climate change era. It leads to two important environmental challenges, loss of biodiversity and increasing of greenhouse gas emission. Many efforts have been introduced, developed and implemented. However, a declining forest cover still presents. Since deforestation is a complex and intertwined issue, understanding its complexity and context on which it is debated is crucial. This paper aims at discussing some grand theories of deforestation, especially from economics perspective. The discussion covers the proximate-underlying causes of deforestation, the Environmental Kuznets Curve for deforestation theory, the forest transition theory and the land rent theory. For each, this paper elaborates their original notion, basic idea, empirical studies and policy derivation. Finally, comparable similarities and dissimilarities and their future extend are reviewed.