ANALYZING THE IMPACT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE ON FOREST DENSITY: EVIDENCE FROM 52 DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.

Preceding studies have mostly concentrated on the impact of international trade of primary goods on forest cover change dynamics, but few studies focused on the international trade and adjustment of trade structure on forest density. Hence this study is specifically trying to identify the links between trade, adjustment of trade structure and forest density in 52 developing countries. Similarly, we examined the forest quality as compare to traditional forest cover change research. We used common conditional mean methods and quantile regression model for data analysis. The results of the conditional mean methods (OLS, random-effect model, GMM) and quantile regression model indicated that the percentage of non-primary goods in total exports (PNPEXP) and total export of manufacturing and services goods (TEXP) show the significant positive impact on forest density. These results of the study specify that a nation or region can improve the forest density condition by the trade and adjustment of trade structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]