The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #36701

William K. Pan, MS, MPH, Biostatistics, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, 305 University Square East, CB# 8120, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, 919-966-3160, wpan@bios.unc.edu and David L. Carr, Geography, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, 305 University Square East, CB# 8120, Chapel Hill, NC 27599.

Since the 1960s demographers and economists have generated an impressive corpus of literature on the determinants of fertility in the developing world where demographic transition patterns continue the evolution of rapidly falling mortality rates preceded by declining fertility rates. However, a potentially important fertility determinant in rural areas that has received paltry attention in social science literature, is the role of resource ownership, access, and management. The scant research on resource-fertility relationships generally (though far from conclusively) support the hypothesis that: 1) resource expansion (more land or other resources) leads to fertility ascension and 2) resource ownership suppresses fertility as economic security vis a vis children is replaced by security due to resource ownership. Both the demands for labor on a larger farm and the desire to expand landholdings as the family grows are considered the two primary interpretations of this relationship. A core aspect of the population-environment interface in frontier environments - where poverty, fertility, and forest conversion rates are high - falls upon the relationship between fertility and land. Yet, to our knowledge, no study has tested the relative importance of fertility determinants using longitudinal data in an agricultural frontier. Therefore, this research took advantage of a subset of longitudinal data collected in 1990 and 1999 from farm families and plots in the Ecuadorian Amazon to analytically describe the relationship between landholdings and fertility over time. Descriptive statistics and models have been developed to explore the underlying causal mechanisms of the fertility-environment relationship.

Learning Objectives: The objective is to educate participants on the determinants of fertility on a rural agricultural frontier

• Participants will be able to list and decribe fertility determinants in a frontier environment
• Participants will be able to discuss and assess the relative lack of research on fertility on a rural frontier as well as recognize the importance of fertility research in this area due to the linkages between population growth and environmental change.
• The relationship between peasant family households and land access is at the center of the population-environment interface. Studies examining the p-e topic are cruicial to policies regarding conservation, family planning, and rural (infrastructure) development.

Keywords: Family Planning, Environmental Health

Related Web page: www.cpc.unc.edu/services/spatial/ecuador.htm

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.