Comparative study of the forest transition pathways of nine Asia-Pacific countries

Forest transition (FT) over the last three decades has attracted much academic attention. In this paper we present a comparative study of FT to assess regional variety in nine countries in Asia: China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam, using data covering the years 1960–2010. This study's examination of changes in forest area demonstrates that Korea and Japan achieved FT before the 1980s, and that China, Vietnam, India and the Philippines achieved FT more recently, while Indonesia, Malaysia and Laos still experience forest cover decline. Economic development pathway and state forest policy pathway are most common in these nine countries. The globalization pathway is also found to contribute to FT, primarily in countries that are net importers of forest products. The land use intensification pathway is not identified in any of the nine countries. This study also observed that four countries (China, Vietnam, India and the Philippines) tend to achieve FT at relatively low income levels, which may point to the significance of state intervention in the region's countries via forest protection laws, national forest planning and afforestation programs.