1 Out-Migration of Second Generation Frontier Colonists and Population Redistribution in the Ecuadorian Amazon Working Paper, IUSSP 2005 Alisson F. Barbieri ∗ David L. Carr ∗∗ Richard E. Bilsborrow ∗∗∗ Abstract. Abstract. Since the 1970s, in-migration has driven swelling human presence and dramatic physical landscape changes in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon frontier. Particularly in recent years, population growth and redistribution has engendered important consequences on deforestation and on the incipient, but increasing, urbanization in the frontier. This paper uses longitudinal and multi-scale data on settler colonists in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon, between 1990 and 1999, to analyze the neglected importance of rural-rural and rural-urban migration of second-generation settler colonists from frontier areas in the Amazon. The results show important differentials between migrants in terms of personal characteristics, human capital endowments, farm household life cycle, access to community resources and infrastructure, and migration networks. The paper also identifies the distinct effects of policy-relevant variables on migrants’ choices of rural versus urban destinations. Keywords. Ecuadorian Amazon; rural-urban migration; rural-rural migration; agricultural colonization; development policies; frontier areas Introduction The Amazon is the largest tropical wilderness area in the world (Mittermeier et al. 2003; see also Myers et al. 2000). In particular, the Amazon region of Ecuador has experienced the highest rate of deforestation of any country’s Amazon area (Food and Agricultural Organization 2001). In the study region in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon (NEA), agricultural colonization occurred along roads built by oil companies to lay pipelines, following the discovery of large oil fields in 1967 near the town of Lago Agrio, which has caused most of the forest loss. In addition to the principal deforestation on the original farms established in the 1970s and 1980s, a second wave of deforestation in the 1980s and 1990s is linked partly to the out-migration of people (mostly sons and daughters of the household head) from migrant settler households to other rural areas of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The rapid growth of Amazonian towns has also attracted migrants from rural households both inside and outside the region, reflecting an evolving new pattern of population mobility within the Amazon: rural-urban migration. Agricultural frontiers are often characterized initially by tremendous rates of in-migration, yet out-migration tends to dominate second-generation settler demographic dynamics (Laurian et al. 1998; Walker et al. 2002), as sons and daughters of pioneer settlers reach the early adult stage of their life cycle and sometimes set off on their own. While this can be a “rite of passage” (Laurian et al. 1998), the out-migration of one or more household members can also be a means of minimizing risk and maximizing household welfare and income. Given the increasing importance of internal migration as a main factor in population growth and changing population distribution in the various Amazonian countries (Bilsborrow 2003; Perz 2003), it is surprising that studies of the determinants of population mobility within the Amazon scarcely exist. Further, existing empirical studies on migration in the region have been based primarily on macro-level data instead of household-level data, and none has used longitudinal data (Marquette and Bilsborrow 1999). It is important to conduct studies based on ∗ Department of City and Regional Planning and Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; afbarbieri@hotmail.com . ∗∗ Department of Geography, University of California at Santa Barbara ∗∗∗ Department of Biostatistics and Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill