Agricultural technology and forests: a recapitulation

This chapter summarises the key insights from the case studies included in the book. First, it discusses the technology-deforestation link in six different types of cases: developed countries, commodity booms, shifting cultivation, permanent upland (rainfed) agriculture, irrigated (lowland) agriculture, and cattle production. Next, it returns to the hypotheses presented in the book, and discusses the key conditioning factors in the technology-deforestation link. A number of factors determine the outcome. Among those, labour market effects and migration are critical in a majority of the cases. Another critical effect is that new technologies can help relax farmers' capital constraints, which may lead to higher or lower deforestation depending on how they invest their additional funds. The scale of adoption and the policy context are also critical conditioning factors.