Comment by pastor_elm

except deforestation is no longer a requirement for development and really hasn't been for 100 years. Look at Japan and South Korea (67.00% and 63.20% forestation respectively). Indonesia is already down to 46.46%. Go look at Brazil outside of the Amazon. Mostly deforested already for farmland and it hasn't really brought the country into the 1st world. Agrarian societies are a dead end for development.