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Rural credit and deforestation : evidence from Thailand O'Beirne, Daniel

Abstract

Access to credit and financial services is an important issue in sustainable development. Rural development and land use decisions are key dynamics influencing deforestation, and consequently biodiversity loss and climate change. However, relatively little is understood about how these phenomena interact. Credit can affect forest cover in numerous ways. In labour-contained contexts, credit can finance investment in agricultural intensification and reduce deforestation. Alternatively, it can provide the funds for investment in agricultural expansion or logging ventures, increasing deforestation. This project explores these potential mechanisms and estimates the impact of increased access to credit on forest cover in rural Thailand. I exploit exogenous variation in credit availability, brought about by the unique institutional design of a 2001 microfinance program in Thailand, to investigate the causal impact of access to credit on forest levels. The results show that forest levels are improved in areas with relatively more credit available. This suggests that reducing credit constraints in rural forest-frontier areas can improve forest levels and associated environmental outcomes.

Item Metadata

Title
Rural credit and deforestation : evidence from Thailand
Creator
O'Beirne, Daniel
Supervisor
Noack, Frederik
Publisher
University of British Columbia
Date Issued
2024
Description
Access to credit and financial services is an important issue in sustainable development. Rural development and land use decisions are key dynamics influencing deforestation, and consequently biodiversity loss and climate change. However, relatively little is understood about how these phenomena interact. Credit can affect forest cover in numerous ways. In labour-contained contexts, credit can finance investment in agricultural intensification and reduce deforestation. Alternatively, it can provide the funds for investment in agricultural expansion or logging ventures, increasing deforestation. This project explores these potential mechanisms and estimates the impact of increased access to credit on forest cover in rural Thailand. I exploit exogenous variation in credit availability, brought about by the unique institutional design of a 2001 microfinance program in Thailand, to investigate the causal impact of access to credit on forest levels. The results show that forest levels are improved in areas with relatively more credit available. This suggests that reducing credit constraints in rural forest-frontier areas can improve forest levels and associated environmental outcomes.
Genre
Thesis/Dissertation
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2024-05-16
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0443552
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88321
Degree
Master of Science - MSc
Program
Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems
Affiliation
Land and Food Systems, Faculty of
Degree Grantor
University of British Columbia
Graduation Date
2024-05
Campus
UBCV
Scholarly Level
Graduate
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International