Economic Development and Deforestation Among Bolivian Amerindian Households

该项目涉及一位人类学家和一位经济学家在玻利维亚热带地区的印第安村庄进行的试点研究。该项目假设，森林砍伐与村庄融入市场之间的联系是非线性的，在部分融入市场的村庄达到峰值，这些村庄的森林砍伐更多，因为它们面临更大的使用权不安全感和更高的私人贴现率。研究人员将于1995年夏天在玻利维亚花2.5个月的时间收集有关Yuracare印第安人的背景数据，确定研究地点，测试日记、回忆和在村庄进行正式调查的有用性，试图找到Yuracare村庄的时间序列价格数据，以衡量村庄与市场的融合程度，定性地检验假设并改进它们，估计实地工作的当地成本，为更长期的研究准备预算。评估实地工作的安全性，并探讨本地学者、非政府组织和政府机构合作进行更广泛研究的兴趣。该研究对全球变化的人类维度研究具有重要意义。当自然资源政策制定者试图设计干预措施以减缓森林砍伐速度时，在家庭层面推进我们对森林砍伐原因的理解将是有价值的。

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.