World Development, Vol. 25, No. 6, pp. 977-987, 1997 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain 0305-750x/97 $17.00+0.00 zyxwvutsrqp PII: s0305-750x(97)00007-7 Household Determinants of Deforestation by Amerindians in Honduras RJCARDO GODOY, KATHLEEN O’NEILL, STEPHEN GROFF, PETER KOSTISHACK, ADONI CUBAS, JOSEPHIEN DEMMER, KENDRA MCSWEENEY, JOHANNES OVERMAN Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A. DAVID WILKIE Associates in Forest Research and Development, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. NICHOLAS BROKAW Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. and MARQUES MARTiNEZ” Mosquitia Pawisa (MOPAWI), Tegucigalpa, Honduras Summary. - A survey of Amerindian households in the Honduran rain forest was done to test hypotheses about the effects of household variables on deforestation and identify policies to lower neotropical deforestation. The results suggest that: (a) the relation between income or age and deforestation resembles an inverted U; (b) fallow lands and illness had a positive link to deforestation: (c) household residence duration and size, education, off-farm income, credit, wealth, and rice yields reduced clearance. 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd Key words - deforestation, farm yields, education, Tawahka, Honduras, Central America 1. INTRODUCTION Since the early 1970s researchers have been studying the causes of neotropical deforestation (Gbmez-Pompa, Vgzques-Yanes and Guevara, 1972; Denevan, 1973) but so far they have paid scant attention to the role Amerindian households play in the clearance of primary rain forest. This article uses quantitative methods to test hypotheses about household determinants of forest clearance among the Tawahka Amerindians. Our applied goal is to explore new policies to curb neotropical deforestation. We study Amerindians because they have re- ceived less attention than loggers, cattle ranchers, or smallholders in studies of deforestation and because they play an increasingly important role in deciding the use of land, minerals, and timber *This study was financed by (a) the programs of Cultural Anthropology and Human Dimensions of Global Change of the National Science Foundation (Grant #SBR-9417570), by (b) the Joint Committee on Latin American Studies of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies with funds provided by the Ford Foundation, and (c) by grants from the Harvard Institute for International Development and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (Harvard University). We would like to thank the following institutions and people for their support in field work and with logistics: Guillermo Dixon, Benjamin Dixon, Eusebio Cardona, Angel Sbnchez, Dionisio Cruz, the Federaci6n Indigena Tawahka de Honduras (FITH), and Osvaldo Mungia and Suyapa Valle of MOPAWI. Michael Hricz provided valuable editorial assistance. We also would like to thank the comments of two anonymous reviewers. Final revision accepted: January 25, 1997. 977