The relationship between income, energy consumption, population and deforestation for environmental quality in Nigeria

This research paper evaluates the effect of income, energy consumption and population on deforestation for environmental degradation in Nigeria. To achieve this objective, a cointegration analysis was used to verify the long-run relationship among the variables, with a dataset spanning from 1981 to 2011. The estimates of income provide evidence of a negative and important relationship with deforestation in both long- and short-run periods. This suggests that higher income can reduce deforestation and improve environmental quality. Furthermore, the coefficient of the population consistently provides evidence of a positive and important relationship with deforestation in the long- and short-run periods. Therefore, the population has been identified as the major cause of deforestation and environmental degradation in the model. Conversely, the estimates of energy consumption in both periods did not provide any evidence of a statistical relationship with deforestation. Therefore, policies of enhancing growth and curtailing deforestation were suggested.