Migración rural-rural y deforestación en la Reserva de la Biosfera Maya, Guatemala. Método de entrevistas

Barney Nietschmann spoke of the Fourth World in reference to the plight of indigenous peoples around the globe. The agricultural frontier is another sort of Fourth world, a peripheral place within Third World Latin America for colonists of native and mixed ancestry. Much of the deforestation in Latin America occurs at the hands of colonist farmers. Yet in explaining forest clearing, researchers of land use change have focused our attention on where the colonists are, and not why they are there. Similarly, the great majority of research on migration in Latin America relates to rural-urban migration or transnational migration and is therefore only peripherally relevant to deforestation. Inspired by Bamey Nietschniann’s example, this paper discusses a methodology for enhancing the geographical scope of standard land use research by highlighting how migration in response to dynamic human and physical environments in one place and time leads to laud cover change in another place and time.