Globalization and the great forest transition

 
The majority of social scientists accept the notion of “forest transition” (also known as “the environmental Kuznets curve”), which describes a historical pattern of change in forest area where as societies industrialize and urbanize, forests first decrease and then grow in extent.

Thomas K. Rudel in ‘Paths of Destruction and Regeneration: Globalization and Forests in the Tropics’ investigates why the relationship between globalization and tropical forests is so that globalization depletes ‘First Nature’ and fosters ‘Second Nature’, where ‘first nature’ refers to old-growth or primary forests while ‘second nature’ refers to forests regenerated after human disturbance.

How globalization depletes “First Nature”?
Rudel explains that engagement in international trade in tropical forest commodities induces entrepreneurs to invest in large-scale infrastructural projects, something local traders can hardly ever afford. As commercial loggers move through an area they take commercially valuable trees from primary forests, leaving these forests highly degraded. Infrastructural development also makes primary forests accessible for smallholders who clear land for agriculture. The initial high nutrient content of deforested land is, however, quickly depleted, forcing farmers to move further into the forest. Finally, Rudel notes, market expansion creates geographical flow of labor to the frontier seeking work at newly created enterprises. 

How globalization fosters “Second Nature”?
According to Rudel’s analysis, continuing market expansion into new areas increases pressure on producers in older production zones. In many cases farms of older zones do not survive the competition from farmers of newly deforested – and therefore still highly fertile – areas. When producers leave these failing farms ‘Second Nature’ quickly takes hold on these abandoned lands.

While secondary forests store considerably less carbon than primary forests (for at least 200 years of age) they still provide some environmental benefits of primary forests as well as some forest products local and indigenous people used to obtain from primary forests and thus their management and protection should not be neglected.