Economic Development and Deforestation Among Bolivian Amerindian Households

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This project involves the pilot research of an anthropologist, and an economist in Indian villages in tropical Bolivia. The project hypothesizes that the link between deforestation and village integration to markets is non-linear, peaking in villages partially integrated to markets, and that these villages deforest more because they face more tenure insecurity and higher private discount rates. The researchers will spend 2.5 months in Bolivia in the summer of 1995 to collect background data on the Yuracare Indians, identify research sites, test the usefulness of diaries, recalls, and formal surveys in the villages, try to find price data in time series for Yuracare villages to measure the intensity of village integration to markets, test hypotheses qualitatively and refine them, get estimates on local costs of field work to prepare a budget for a longer study, assess the safety of doing field work, and explore the interest of local scholars, NGOs and government institutions in collaborating in more extensive research. This research is important for the Human Dimension of Global Change research effort. Advancing our understanding of the causes of deforestation on a household level will be valuable to natural resource policy makers as they attempt to design interventions to slow the rate of deforestation.