Economic growth and deforestation in the DRC

The forest resources on which many of the economies of the Congo Basin countries are based are exhaustible. However, several developing countries, particularly the DRC, have made them the basis of their economies. For this reason, the present work has set itself the objective of analyzing the link between economic growth and deforestation in the DRC, while at the same time identifying the effect of the latter on the former. Therefore, the cointegration test at the bounds through the ARDL model was used to highlight the long and short term effects between the variables. Data from the World Bank Database (WDI) from 1998-2021 were used. The results of this study show that in the short run economic growth increases the rate of deforestation through destabilization of institutions and growth behavior. However, in the long term, this relationship becomes negative due to the substitution of natural capital by other capital. Hence, the DRC should reinvest in forest resources and strengthen its institutions to sustain its economic growth in the long term. Keywords: Economic growth, deforestation and AR model.