Doctoral Dissertation Research: Out-Migration, Environmental Change, and Rural Livelihoods in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes

博士论文研究：厄瓜多尔安第斯山脉南部的外迁、环境变化和农村生计

• 批准号: 0525469
• 负责人: Richard Bilsborrow
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-09-01 至 2008-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0525469&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Out; Migration

The environment is commonly invoked as an underlying cause of human migration in the developing world, both in the human-environment literature and in the publications of conservation and development organizations. Despite the frequency of these claims, few studies have systematically investigated migration-environment relationships, particularly for widespread forms of gradual environmental and landscape change like soil degradation and deforestation. These changes are known to threaten the sustainability of rural livelihoods, including smallholder agriculture and wild product collection. This doctoral dissertation research project will apply a multi-method approach to investigate these relationships in an important center of out-migration and environmental change in the southern Ecuadorian Andes, asking the core question: What are the connections between environmental change, out-migration, and resource-dependent livelihood strategies? The doctoral candidate predicts that environmental change stimulates out-migration, particularly from agrarian households and towards rural destinations, and that it does so by reducing the productivity of smallholder agriculture. Data collection will include a survey of a sample of communities and households from the study area. The student also will use qualitative methods and spatial analytic approaches, drawing on advances in the field of population-environment research. The subsequent analysis will use multilevel regression models to estimate the effects of environmental variables at both household and community scales on (1) individual out-migration and (2) household participation in resource-dependent livelihood strategies, while controlling for other effects at these scales. Interpretation of these results will be informed by the qualitative data collection. This approach will provide insight into the complex interactions of human livelihoods and the physical environment in rural landscapes of the developing world.This project will address two key processes of rural transformation in the developing world: out-migration, which is leading to population decline in many rural areas, and environmental and landscape change, which is eroding local biodiversity and the sustainability of rural livelihoods. The interaction of these processes has been claimed to displace millions of "environmental refugees" each year, but the real dimensions of this problem are unknown. These issues are of immediate concern to community members in the study area, where soil degradation and droughts have paralleled rapid out-migration to international, urban, and frontier destinations. This project will address these concerns in a new, systematic, and interdisciplinary way that will inform the actions of governmental and non-governmental organizations working for conservation with development. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.

环境通常被认为是发展中世界人类迁徙的根本原因，在人类环境文献和保护与发展组织的出版物中都是如此。尽管这些说法经常出现，但很少有研究系统地研究移民与环境的关系，特别是土壤退化和森林砍伐等广泛形式的逐渐环境和景观变化。众所周知，这些变化威胁到农村生计的可持续性，包括小农农业和野生产品采集。这一博士论文研究项目将采用多种方法在厄瓜多尔安第斯山脉南部一个重要的外迁和环境变化中心调查这些关系，提出核心问题：环境变化、外迁和资源依赖型生计战略之间有什么联系？这位博士生预测，环境变化会刺激人口向外迁移，特别是从农业家庭向农村目的地迁移，并通过降低小农农业的生产率来做到这一点。数据收集将包括对研究区社区和家庭的抽样调查。学生还将利用人口-环境研究领域的进展，使用定性方法和空间分析方法。随后的分析将使用多级回归模型来估计家庭和社区规模的环境变量对(1)个人迁出和(2)家庭参与依赖资源的生计战略的影响，同时控制这些规模的其他影响。对这些结果的解释将由定性数据收集提供信息。这一项目将探讨发展中国家农村转型的两个关键过程：导致许多农村地区人口减少的人口外流，以及正在侵蚀当地生物多样性和农村生计可持续性的环境和景观变化。据称，这些过程的相互作用每年导致数百万“环境难民”流离失所，但这一问题的真正层面尚不清楚。这些问题是研究地区社区成员的当务之急，那里的土壤退化和干旱伴随着向国际、城市和边境目的地的快速迁出。该项目将以一种新的、系统的和跨学科的方式解决这些问题，为致力于保护和发展的政府和非政府组织的行动提供信息。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。