HOUSEHOLD LIFECYCLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE - PDF document

HOUSEHOLD LIFECYCLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE ECUADORIAN AMAZON Victoria Salinas Castro. a Doctor student in the University Federal of Minas Gerais, CEDEPLAR, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. victoriasalinas@yahoo.com Richard Bilsborrow. Carolina Population Center , University of North Carolina richard_bilsborrow@unc.edu Abstract Indigenous populations are among the least studied demographically, and even less their relationships with the environment, though their territories contain up to 80% of the planet's biodiversity. This study aims to understand the dynamics of the life cycle of indigenous households and its relationships with the use of natural resources and environmental impacts, mediated by a number of variables including access to markets. The study will be longitudinal, utilizing data from two surveys conducted on the same indigenous households in 2001 and 2012 in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The exogenous factors that may have encouraged deforestation and increased land use for agricultural activities for sale increased significantly in this first decade. However, deforestation increased by 50% per household, from 4 ha per household this rose to 6 ha. The type of household that presents the significant changes are the households that have children over 18 (type 6), in 2001 this showed the lowest land use, and the lowest participation in agricultural activities, but for 2012, it is which shows the motivations of factors exogenous to these populations and specifically to those in the economically active age. The results also shed light on the extent to which these indigenous populations in the rainforest context are managing their production and reproduction dynamics consistent with conservation of resources. a Scholarship holder of FAPEMIG INTRODUCTION In the world, there are about 300 million people generally recognized as indigenous. Although they represent only about 4% of the world's population, they constitute about 10% of the poor, and inhabit lands that have almost 80% of the planet's biodiversity. However, they own less than 11% of this land. Indigenous peoples are one of the least demographically studied populations, and, although a small part of the world population, 1

their social, political and economic characteristics as well as their unique, diverse and rich cultures make it important to better understand their demographic behavior, relationships with the use of natural resources, and impacts on the special environments in which they live. For this we examine the life cycles of indigenous households (HH) in the Ecuadorian Amazon and how they affect the use of land and therefore the natural environment. This is especially important in the case of the Ecuadorian Amazon study area, first, because of its extraordinary biological diversity, described as a "hot spot" (Bass et al., 2012: Finer et al., 2009); and second, because the region is threatened by exploitation of oil companies and the invasion of migrant settlers, mostly from the Sierra or Ecuadorian highlands (Bilsborrow et al., 2004). In addition, in recent decades, as mortality has declined significantly while fertility has declined little and remained very high (total fertility rate of 7 births per woman in 2012: see Davis et al., 2016), rapid population growth is also adding to pressure on natural resources. The different stages of the household life cycle are characterized by different sizes and composition of the household by age and sex (manifested in different dependency ratios), which have consequences for both consumption needs and the availability of labor. As these populations live in rural areas, they are economically dependent on the natural environment. Thus, the demographic dynamics of households may affect the local environment via changing dependence on natural resources. However, this is not to mention that indigenous populations have limited capacity to influence the exogenous forces acting on them and their territories. This paper aims to analyze the life cycle of indigenous households and its relationship with access to and use of land and the changes that have occurred over time in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Another objective is to develop a methodology for categorizing the stages of the life cycle in relation to the size and composition of the indigenous household, especially by age as manifested in varying dependency rates. Theoretical approach This document was intended to emancipate within a more complete and dynamic view of the study subjects in order to really understand population and environment. As some authors have pointed out, this is not a static concept, it depends on the scale, interests and even the political and ideological approach that can make invisible structuring elements and determinants of the phenomenon that is intended to study. Therefore the concept of environment will not have a definition, look or unique elements of analysis. Lutz et al. (2002) allows us to understand this assertion with what he calls a static picture can not do justice to the dynamic interactions between population and environment. To understand the real dimension that Lutz et al. (2002) places with its article and proposal for analysis, it is 2

necessary to refer to a conceptual chart developed by Barbieri (2016), where the environment can not be seen as a separate quadrant of the population, but these are in continuous relationships, and which are mediated by factors that have to be analyzed to understand the phenomenon of study, therefore these elements give rise to conforming an environment, and this is the one that must be analyzed, see chart 1. Fig. 1 Relationship between population and environment. AMBIENTE Population Mediators Environment - Increase - Culture - Water - Institutions - Mortality - Air - Technology - Fertility - Forest - Etc. - Migration - Etc. Source: Graph of the Concept of Environment and Population developed by Barbieri 2016. Lambin et al. (2001), also allows us to understand this complexity, because these authors put elements that are understood when studying the situation of the environment and relations with populations, and not these as the causes of deforestation or negative impacts, for they come out of unique proposals and do not remain in the very simple eyes - cause and direct consequence between the investigated actor and the environmental theme -, but also it is necessary to go beyond the "popular myths" (eg, poverty leads to the degradation by the greater use of the soil and greater deforestation). And as the authors indicate, this can be assumed as unique real truths because of the validity that has been made with multiple studies. One of the elements that also analyze these authors, is the globalization, in order to make connections between the local, regional and global. Not only as demanding markets, but also as social, political, cultural, economic and demographic elements, where each of these influences changes land use and coverage. This allows, as noted above, to leave the simplicity and guilt of population growth to generate negative impacts. In the same way that the simple answers that make the studies in which the elements of the policies, the opportunities and the restrictions that are behind them are not analyzed. Within this comprehensive theoretical postulate this document involved micro- demographic dynamics, seeking to understand the incentives for production and reproduction at the household level, recognizing that households are key players in the use of natural resources and environmental impacts, particularly in the Amazon jungle. More specifically, a main theoretical approach that will be used is the Chayanovian framework (see Marquette, 1998) and what is intended with this framework is not necessarily validate its theory, in which both consumption (eg food) production (eg, land use, perhaps involving further deforestation) in household changes with household life cycles, and household formation, child growth, and ultimately parenting and migration of the children to form their own homes within the dwelling / parental grounds. But to properly investigate the 3