What Drives Household Deforestation Decisions? Insights from the Ecuadorian Lowland Rainforests

Abstract

Tropical forests, and more concretely, the Amazon Basin and the Chocó-Darién, are highlyaffected by deforestation activities. Households are the main land-use decision-makers and are keyagents for forest conservation and deforestation. Understanding the determinants of deforestation atthe household level is critical for conservation policies and sustainable development. We explore thedrivers of household deforestation decisions, focusing on the quality of the forest resources (timbervolume potential) and the institutional environment (conservation strategies, titling, and governmentalgrants). Both aspects are hypothesized to influence deforestation, but there is little empirical evidence.We address the following questions: (i) Does timber availability attract more deforestation? (ii) Doconservation strategies (incentive-based programs in the Central Amazon and protected areas inthe Chocó-Darién) influence deforestation decisions in household located outside the areas underconservation? (iii) Does the absence of titling increase the odds of a household to deforest? (iv) Cangovernmental grants for poverty alleviation help in the fight against deforestation? We estimated alogit model, where the dependent variable reflects whether or not a household cleared forest withinthe farm. As predictors, we included the above variables and controlled by household-specificcharacteristics. This study was conducted in the Central Amazon and the Chocó-Darién of Ecuador,two major deforestation fronts in the country. We found that timber volume potential is associatedwith a higher odds of deforesting in the Central Amazon, but with a lower odds in the Chocó-Darién.Although conservation strategies can influence household decisions, the effects are context-dependent.Households near the incentive-based program (Central Amazon) have a lower odds of deforesting,whereas households near a protected area (Chocó-Darién) showed the opposite effect. Titling is alsoimportant for deforestation reduction; more attention is needed in the Chocó-Darién where numeroushouseholds are living in untitled lands. Finally, governmental grants for poverty alleviation showedthe potential to generate positive environmental outcomes.