The effects of roads on indigenous people's well-being and use of natural resources: A natural experiment in lowland Bolivia

Ricardo Godoy博士（布兰迪斯大学）、Ori Heffetz博士（康奈尔大学）和维多利亚Reyes-Garcia博士（布兰迪斯大学）将研究公路建设对低收入国家土著人民的影响。道路建设倡导者认为，新建道路有助于市场准入，促进经济发展，改善健康和福祉。批评者认为，新建道路有许多负面的生态和社会后果。为了解决这一争论，研究人员将使用一个自然实验，该实验是在玻利维亚一个由三个不同的亚马逊土著群体居住的国家公园即将修建的道路上进行的。该项目将在三年内在Isiboro-Sécure国家公园的Tsimanee，Yuracaré和Moxeños人居住的村庄进行。这项研究将于2010年在道路修建之前开始，收集基线社会和生态数据。 2011年和2012年，在施工完成后，将进行年度后续调查，以确定道路的直接影响。福祉的衡量标准将包括（a）村庄收入和地位不平等，（B）家庭内部收入差距，（c）个人现金收入，（d）社会资本和（e）心理调整。自然资源使用的计量将包括为销售和消费而开采自然资源的变化。为了利用这个自然实验提供的研究机会，研究人员将邀请其他研究人员要求收集其他研究问题的特定主题的额外数据。 因此，虽然该项目侧重于道路建设的直接和短期影响，但它也将为其他研究人员评估中长期影响创建重要的数据库。此外，该研究计划还支持培养三名博士生。穿越亚马逊土著领土的公路建设使特别是公路建设的捍卫者和批评者，以及更广泛的发展，分成两个阵营。对如此复杂的主题进行单一研究无法解决这一争论，但通过提供前后数据，该项目将为最终解决方案提供经验基础。

Dr. Ricardo Godoy (Brandeis University), Dr. Ori Heffetz (Cornell University), and Dr. Victoria Reyes-Garcia (Brandeis University) will undertake research on the impacts of road construction on indigenous peoples in low-income nations. Road construction advocates argue that new roads facilitate market access, promote economic development, and improve health and well-being. Detractors contend that new roads have many negative ecological and social consequences. To help resolve this debate, the researchers will use a natural experiment created by the imminent construction of a road through a national park inhabited by three different native Amazonian groups in Bolivia.The project will take place over a period of three years in villages inhabited by Tsimanee, Yuracaré, and Moxeños peoples, in Parque Nacional Isiboro-Sécure. The study will commence in 2010 before the road is built, with the collection of baseline social and ecological data. In 2011 and 2012, after construction has been completed, annual follow-up surveys will be carried out to determine the road's immediate impacts. Measures of well-being will include measures of (a) village income and status inequality, (b) intra-household income disparities, (c) individual cash income, (d) social capital, and (e) psychological adjustment. Measures of natural resource use will include changes in the extraction of natural resources for sale and for consumption. To leverage the research opportunity afforded by this natural experiment, the researchers will invite other researchers to request that additional data be collected on particular topics of interest for other research questions. Thus while this project focuses on immediate and short-term effects of road building, it also will create a significant data repository for other researchers to assess medium and long-term effects. In addition, the research program supports the training of three doctoral students. The construction of roads through native Amazonian territories has polarized defenders and critics of road building in particular, and development more generally, into two camps. A single study on such a complex topic cannot resolve the debate, but by providing before-and-after data, this project will provide an empirical basis for an eventual resolution.