Forest Transition: Without Complexity, Without Scale

Abstract

The forest transition is an empirical regularity of long-term changes in forest cover that has been observed in a number of countries and large regions. In the February 2007 issue of The Professional Geographer, Stephen Perz addressed the theoretical explanations that have been advanced to explain forest transition in his article entitled, “Grand Theory and Context-Specificity in the Study of Forest Dynamics: Forest Transition Theory and Other Directions.” Perz criticizes forest transition theory, and suggests possible remedies. This article takes issue with Perz's critique, as well as with the proposed remedies.

La transición forestal es una regularidad empírica de los cambios a largo plazo en la cobertura forestal que se han observado en varios países y en regiones de gran tamaño. En el número de febrero de 2007 de la revista The Professional Geographer, Stephen Perz abordó las explicaciones teóricas que se han presentado para explicar la transición forestal, en su artículo titulado “Grand Theory and Context-Specificity in the Study of Forest Dynamics: Forest Transition Theory and Other Directions” (Gran teoría y especificidad del contexto en el estudio de la dinámica forestal: teoría de la transición forestal y otras direcciones). Perz critica la teoría de transición forestal y sugiere medidas correctivas posibles. En este artículo se discute la crítica de Perz así como las medidas correctivas propuestas.

Key Words:

• forest transition
• land use and land cover change
• LULCC

关键词:

• 森林过度
• 土地利用与土地植被的变化

Palabras clave:

• transición forestal
• cambio del uso del suelo y cobertura del suelo (land use and land cover change, LULCC)

Notes

¹The implication is that the forest transition cannot be held out as a palliative, a truly Kuznetzian restoration of the environment (see Chomitz 2006).

²It is interesting to consider the origin and meaning of the term panarchy with a direct quote from one of its creators, who tells us “we decided to go “whole-hog” and invent the term panarchy … by drawing on the mischievous Greek god Pan, the paradoxical spirit of nature. We joined the idea of Pan to the dynamic reality of hierarchies across scales, in which nature self-organizes lumps of living stuff on a more continuous physical template described by power laws” (Holling 2004, 11).