Abstract
This study aimed to analyze quantitatively the influences of socio-economic factors on forest cover changes in economically fast-growing China. Multiple regression analysis was implemented for provincial levels using provincial time series data for 1993 to 2013. Percapita GDP and per-capita GDP squared and cubed were included in the models assuming that the relationship between forest cover and economic level could be described as U-shaped or inverted N-shaped curves. The estimation results by the selected model by AIC show that forest cover in many provinces tended to increase when Per-capita GDP increased during the period, the increase rates of forest cover were not same in different provinces, and forest area in some provinces might turn to decrease in the future. Furthermore, the coefficient values indicate that Per-capita GDP has the biggest impact on forest cover among all the factors concerned.
