The Role of Education in Neotropical Deforestation: Household Evidence from Amerindians in Honduras

A survey of 101 Tawahka Amerindian househo lds in the Honduran rain forest examined the effects of schoolin g on the clearance of old-growth rain forest. The results of tobit, ordinary least square, probit, and median regressions suggest that: (i) each additional year of education lowers the probability of cutting old-growth rain forest by abou t 4% and reduces the area cut by 0.06 ha/fam ily each year, an d (ii) the effect of edu cation on deforestation is non-lin ear. With up to 2 years of schoolin g forest clearance declines; with between 2 and 4 years of schoolin g, clearance increases, but beyond 4 years education once again seems to curb deforestation . Even a little education curbs forest clearance because it is easier for individu als to acqu ire inform ation abou t new farm technologies from outsiders in order to intensify term production by river banks. Estimates of the social rate 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 accoun t the positive and negative environmental externalities of education .