Will increase of human population result in decrease in forest area?

Background/Question/Methods

Increase in human population usually result in decrease in forest resource. Long-term time series of forest inventory information at a local scale could provide trends in local forest resource changes and also be useful for testing some hypotheses about forestry development. Based on forest inventory data and related human population information in Alabama including all 67 counties for the past seven decades, the trend of forest resource change (e.g., area and resource composition) in Alabama was characterized.

Results/Conclusions

The results indicated that the total area of commercial forest at state level increased in the last seven decades and the area of commercial forest had a positive linear correlation with total human population at the state level. On the county level, only two counties (Baldwin and Mobile counties) had an increase in human population and a decrease in commercial forest area; 12 counties (about 18% of all counties) had an increase in both human population and commercial forest area; 16 counties (about 24% of all counties) had a decrease in human population and an increase in forest land, while 37 counties (about 55% of all counties) did not have an obvious relationship. The forest resource structure was changed. These results also support (i) an increasing population might not result in decreased forest area, and (ii) forest coverage increased in counties with poor economy.