The role of education in neotropical deforestation: Household evidence from Amerindians in Honduras

A survey of 101 Tawahka Amerindian households in the Honduran rain forest e xamined the effects of schooling on the clearance of old-growth rain forest . The results of tobit, ordinary least square, probit, and median regressio ns suggest that: (i) each additional year of education lowers the probabili ty of cutting old-growth rain forest by about 4% and reduces the area cut b y 0.06 ha/family each year and (ii) the effect of education on deforestatio n is non-linear With lip to 2 years of schooling forest clearance declines; with between 2 and 4 years of schooling, clearance increases, brat beyond 4 years education once again seems to curb deforestation. Even a little edu cation curbs forest clearance because it is easier for individuals to acqui re information about new farm technologies from outsiders in order to inten sify term production by river banks. Estimates of the social rare of return to education for indigenous populations of Latin American have been shown to be high, We suggest that these rates of return may need reappraisal for Amerindians in the rain forest to take into account the positive and negati ve environmental externalities of education.