ABSTRACT
Forest coverage is estimated to be over 4 billion hectares worldwide by 2010, composing 31 per cent of the total land area. 53 per cent of the total forest area is located in five of the most forest-rich countries: Russia, Brazil, Canada, US and China. The forest transition model suggests that countries in the frontier and mosaics stages mainly suffer from deforestation. This chapter provides a historical overview of the international law, domestic law, and private regulatory regimes that have been developed to address deforestation and forest degradation. It describes how regulatory regimes addressing both forestry problems have evolved in the five countries. After accounting for the selection of these five countries for case studies, each case study starts with a description of the most important problems concerning forestry. Subsequently, the case studies describe how property rights have been established in a particular country and what additional public and private regulations have been implemented to counter deforestation and forest degradation.
