Is there an Environmental Kuznets Curve for clearcutting in Canadian forests?^*

This study investigates the macroeconomic forces underlying forest clearcutting practices across Canada. In keeping with the relevant literature on environmental degradation, three forces are assumed to influence forest clearcutting: per capita gross domestic product (GDP),technology, and population density. While previous work has used models that assume linear relationships between the latter two variables and environmental degradation, this paper employs a more flexible (quadratic) model. Pooled regression analysis in the Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Prairie, and British Columbia regions between 1975–99 indicates that while technological change tends to have an inverted U-shaped relationship with forest area clearcut, population and GDP/capita tend to have the opposite effects. This last variable finding strongly rejects the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis of an inverted U-shaped relationship between GDP/capita and forest area clearcut in Canada.