A review of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for deforestation policy in Bangladesh

Deforestation in the tropical developing countries is the critical environmental concern to ecologists and environmentalists. Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is critical to understanding the development path of a nation in relevance to its environment. The dictation of national economic growth to deforestation can be found through the study of EKC. To understand the EKC phenomena for deforestation, the study was undertaken through reviewing the literature. With the understanding of the different EKC trajectories for deforestation, an attempt was made to implicate the economic development of Bangladesh with the EKC. The proven EKC trajectories for deforestation in some regions/countries show a higher income per capita requirement for the turning point. The study suggests that tunneling in the EKC trajectory for Bangladesh would be favorable. The type of economic and forest policy that Bangladesh should follow to retard deforestation is also revealed. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) have been suggested for tunneling the EKC in Bangladesh. The findings of the study are expected to contribute to the environmental development of Bangladesh.