Assessing Forest Conservation Strategies for Biodiversity Restoration and Sustainable Development: A Comparative Analysis of Global Income Groups

Abstract

The escalating rate of deforestation presents significant challenges to the global economy, including the loss of habitats for endangered species and a decline in biocapacity reserves. This situation also raises concerns about overcrowding and excessive production, which can undermine conservation efforts. Addressing this issue, Sustainable Development Goal 15 of the United Nations emphasizes managing forest resources, preventing habitat loss, combatting desertification, and expanding biodiversity reserves. Its contributions have played a pivotal role in wildlife conservation, mitigating rural-urban migration and preserving land resources. Given the relevance of this problem, this study examines the consequences of ongoing tropical deforestation on the loss of endangered species habitats while controlling for biocapacity reserves, urbanization, economic growth, and industrialization across a large sample of 159 nations, further categorized into low-, middle-, and high-income countries. The findings from cross-sectional and quantile regression analyses reveal that higher deforestation rates, increased rural-urban migration, and greater industrialization threaten endangered species habitats. Conversely, increased biocapacity reserves and economic growth contribute to wildlife restoration. Granger causality estimations highlight unidirectional relationships between deforestation and biodiversity loss (as well as biocapacity reserves), while deforestation and industrialization exhibit bidirectional causality. The results further indicate that sustained economic growth leads to deforestation, biocapacity reserves, and urbanization, while urbanization contributes to deforestation. This underscores the role of deforestation as the primary driver of habitat loss for endangered species and the depletion of biocapacity, thereby fostering mass production. Urbanization and economic growth are shown to be causally linked to deforestation across countries. The study underscores the urgent need to safeguard forest reserves against large-scale land conversion for infrastructure development, industrialization, and settlement of overpopulated urban areas, as these factors contribute to habitat degradation and biodiversity loss. Conserving, restoring, and promoting sustainable utilization of ecosystems are essential measures to address natural uncertainties and advance Sustainable development goals.