The Effect of Forest Access on the Market for Fuelwood in India

Fuelwood collection is often cited as the most important cause of deforestation in developing countries. Use fuelwood cooking a leading indoor air pollution. Using household data from India, we show that households located farther away forest spend more time collecting. Distant are likely to sell and buy less. That is, lower access forests increases sale. This counter-intuitive behavior triggered by two factors: (a) fixed costs collecting, which turn leads collection; (b) drives up local prices, makes sale profitable. We quantify both these effects. our estimates fifth collected consumed outside rural areas, nearby towns cities. Our results imply at margin, scarcity may lead increased sale, exacerbate degradation.