Migration to the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala: Why place matters

Most migration research examines international migration or urbanization. Yet understudied rural migrants are of critical concern for environmental conservation and rural sustainable development. Despite the fact that a relatively small number of all migrants settle remote rural frontiers, these are the agents responsible for perhaps most of the tropical deforestation on the planet. Further, rural migrants are among the most destitute people worldwide in terms of economic and human development. While some research has investigated deforestation resulting from frontier migration and frontier development, this article explores the necessary antecedent to tropical deforestation and poverty in agricultural frontiers: emigration from origin areas. The data come from a 2000 survey with community leaders and key informants in 16 municipios (municipalities) of migrant origin to the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR), Peten, Guatemala. A common denominator among communities of migration origin to the Peten frontier was unequal resource access, usually land. Nevertheless, factors driving resource scarcity were widely variable. Land degradation, land consolidation, and population growth prevailed in some communities but not in others. Despite similar exposure to community and regional level push factors, most people in the sampled communities did not emigrate, suggesting that any one or combination of factors is not necessarily sufficient for emigration.