Declining fertility on the frontier: the Ecuadorian Amazon

Abstract

This paper examines farm and household characteristics associated with a rapid fertility decline in a forest frontier of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The Amazon basin and other rainforests in the tropics are among the last frontiers in the ongoing global fertility transition. The pace of this transition along agricultural frontiers will likely have major implications for future forest transitions, rural development, and ultimately urbanization in frontier areas. The study here is based upon data from a probability sample of 172 women who lived on the same farm in 1990 and 1999. These data are from perhaps the first region-wide longitudinal survey of fertility in an agricultural frontier. Descriptive analyses indicate that fertility has plummeted in the region, which is surprising since it had remained high and unchanging among migrant colonists up to 1990. Thus only half of the women in our sample reported having a birth during the 1990-1999 time period, and most women report in 1999 that they do not want to have any more children. Analyses, controlling for women's age, corroborate hypotheses about land-fertility relations. For example, women from households with a legal land title had fewer than half as many children as those from households without a title. Large cattle (pasture) holdings and hiring laborers to work on the farm (which may replace household labor) are both related to socio-economic status that is traditionally associated with lower fertility. Similarly, distance to the nearest community center is positively related to fertility. Factors negatively related to fertility include increasing temporary out-migration of adult men or women from the household, asset accumulation, and access to electricity.

Rural household demographics, livelihoods and the environment

“…They postulate that a larger farm size creates a demand for children as labor to keep land in production (and to retain use rights). This positive relationship has been observed in studies in Rwanda, Egypt, the Philippines, Iran, Peru and Ecuador (Hiday, 1978;Schutjer et al, 1983;Easterlin and Crimmins, 1985;Good et al, 1989;Clay and Johnson, 1992;Coomes et al, 2001;Carr et al, 2006). Alternatively, it has also been proposed that the effects of land tenure can counteract the relationship between farm size and family size.…”

“…Greater security is associated with higher living standards, access to health care, and greater educational opportunities, all of which promote lower fertility. Studies in the Philippines, Egypt, Ecuador, Iran, India and Mexico provide evidence for the negative relationship between tenure security and fertility (Hiday, 1978;DeVaney and Sanchez, 1979;Vlasoff andVlasoff, 1980, Schutjer et al, 1983;Good et al, 1989;Coomes et al, 2001;Carr et al, 2006). Easterlin (1976) proposed that in frontier settings it is not the size of farm that predicts family size, but the perception of availability of land for one's children.…”

“…Here again, reverse causality is more likely, since larger families are presumably older and therefore more likely to have accumulated the resources necessary for cattle ownership. Carr et al (2006) take advantage of a subset of longitudinal data collected in 1990 and 1999 to explore land-fertility relationships in the Ecuadorian Amazon. By using longitudinal data they were able to follow families and plots over time and analytically describe the relationship between landholdings and fertility.…”

Natural and sexual selection in a monogamous historical human population

“…Concerning differences in fertility rates, Utahn mothers had ∼5.0 children in their lifetime, compared with 4.4 for Finns. In addition to the demographic and environmental characteristics of pioneer populations, economic returns to land are usually low relative to labor in frontier environments (43) and could have contributed to the socially supported desire for high family size of these Mormons. All in all, comparing Bateman principles across populations as suggested by Brown et al (11), or more generally the contribution of the different episodes of selection on the opportunity for selection as introduced here (8,25), can shed light on the causes and consequences of human diversity.…”

Resource management and fertility in Mexico’s Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve: Campos, cash, and contraception in the lobster-fishing village of Punta Allen

“…In other contexts locals may not enjoy such choices. Landlessness and lack of land tenure often causes squatters to rapaciously exhaust land on which there exists no guarantee of permanent residence (Fearnside 2001;Carr 2004Carr , 2005Carr et al 2006a). Among rural communities in isolation from each other, regional consensus on "internal" regulations is difficult to attain (let alone the attainment of their enforcement).…”