The existence of widespread international trade in forest and agriculture products adds a substantial complication to national attempts to designate lands for special uses, e.g., habitat protection and biodiversity reserves. In a world of widespread and highly integrated international trade, the domestic implications of setting aside land for biodiversity are readily disguised. For example, a reduction of the land area available to commercial forestry need not result in rising food prices since the production declines can readily be offset with increased for resources or forest products imports. However, globally, forest land set-aside in one country may result in increased logging elsewhere as international markets adjusts to set-asides in one country by expanding logging elsewhere.
In a global context care must be taken when undertaking domestic land-use policies designed to that reduce the market outputs since a reduction in outputs in one region is likely to be transferred to another region via the transmission of price effects via the global market.
Key words: trade, biodiversity, forestry, land-use, and global markets.
Correspondence: Roger A. Sedjo, 1616 P Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA