human population dynamics

in protected areas

John Kerr
Parks in Peril, Innovations in Conservation Series, 2007

Human population pressures put great strains on the environment. At the same time,
population growth increases the need for quality environmental services—such as
urban drinking water provided by water catchments in protected areas. In the Latin
American and Caribbean region, annual population growth has reached a rate of
1.5 percent per year (see Table 1), indicating that the population will double in less
than 50 years if this trend continues (PRB 2007). To integrate human population
and environment dynamics, conservation practitioners need to assess and address
Angela Martin

population dynamics—growth, density and migration. By investigating and monitoring

these links, conservation practitioners are able to conserve biodiversity more effectively
in those areas which face population-related pressures (TNC 2001).

Population issues affecting protected areas

in this issue...
Population issues affecting protected
areas
Case studies on human population
dynamics in protected areas
Recommendations for integrating
human population dynamics into
protected area management
Angela Martin
Migration is a primary concern among conservation practitioners. In an analysis
conducted by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in 2001, 79 percent of TNC program
managers surveyed indicated that migration was the greatest population-related source
of stress affecting their region’s protected areas (TNC 2001).
In addition to migration, there are many other connections between population and
the environment, such as:
• High fertility along with rapid in-migration brings a high population growth rate,
increasing demands on the environment.
• Rapid urbanization and migration to urban areas creates increased problems
involving natural resource use and destruction of the environment (e.g., using trees
as building materials and clearing forests to make room for urban development).
• Sparse planning or regulation on land use in a region experiencing fast growth can
cause such problems as fragmentation of habitats, loss of wildlife corridors and
forests, and intense pressure on water resources and aquatic ecosystems.
• Migration to small, fragile areas of high biodiversity can cause great strains on the
ecosystem and hinder its opportunity for long-term health.
• As demands for resources within fixed reserves or self-governing territories grow,
the population is likely to relax regulations regarding development of the area.
• Poverty,

lack of significant health care, and lack of educational and economic

opportunities is often combined with high fertility to bring even more strain on
the natural resources. This combination continues the cycle of poverty, as the
resources eventually diminish (WWF 2002).

Human Population Dynamics in Protected Areas 


Mark Godfrey
case 1
High fertility and the Maya
Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala
In Guatemala, one of the driving forces behind
habitat destruction of the Maya Biosphere
Reserve is the 2.8 percent national annual rate
of population growth. This growth is due in large
part to high fertility rates in the country — the
highest in all the Americas. The average woman
in Guatemala has 4.4 children during her lifetime,
compared to an average of 2.7 children globally.
Rapid population growth in inhabited areas has
led to increased internal migration, as a largely
agricultural society seeks access to arable land
and moves into remote wilderness areas of lower
population density, such as the Maya Biosphere
Reserve and its buffer zone.
Source: adapted from TNC 2001b
Angela Martin
 Human Population Dynamics in Protected Areas
Case studies on human population
dynamics in protected areas
In 2001, the Parks in Peril program commissioned and compiled
case studies to show the effects of human population dynamics on
protected areas. Three case studies show the complex links between
human population dynamics and protected areas. First, the national
annual rate of population growth in Guatemala has negatively affected
the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. Second, the Galapagos
Islands in Ecuador have been subject to inmigration, specifically an
increase in the percentage of females migrating to the islands. Finally,
the Dominican Central Cordillera is experiencing out-migration of
campesinos to the cities, leading to changes in land use practices.
Two more case studies demonstrate the use of tools to identify
and monitor population-related pressures on natural resources
in order to make recommendations for conservation action. A
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping exercise in the
Sonoran Desert Ecoregion on the U.S.-Mexico border—with its
high population density and rapid population growth—shows the
effects of inmigration and urban sprawl and highlights the location
of sites experiencing rapid human population growth. Community-
based mapping and socioeconomic surveys in the Bosawas Biosphere
Reserve in Nicaragua proved to be useful to address pressures on
natural resources in this remote reserve.
Recommendations for integrating
human population dynamics
• Use GIS and human context analysis tools to understand the
human population dynamics—such as growth, density and
migration—in and around protected areas. The cases from the
Bosawas Biosphere Reserve and the Sonoran Desert Ecoregion
both use mapping to identify opportunities for interventions and
future conservation strategies.
• Form multi-disciplinary teams with social scientists, natural
scientists, economists and local authorities to develop
conservation strategies. The cases from the Maya Biosphere
Reserve and the Cordillera Central illustrate that the driving
forces for the land use changes are rooted in human population
dynamics and future conservation strategies need to take these
dynamics into consideration.
• Promote and practice cross-sectoral planning at international,
national and local levels. Conservation planning exercises should
analyze information—for example, the state of the environment,
agricultural needs and practices, land use, migration patterns,
and socioeconomic factors, such as health, economic status,
gender roles, and demographic patterns—at a variety of scales.
The Galapagos case shows how national policies were developed
to address migration issues affecting an island chain, while
the Sonoran Desert case illustrates a transboundary planning
exercise.
Table. 1. Demographic Data and Estimates for Select Latin America and Caribbean Countries
Projected

Deaths per 1,000 Population

Percent of

Births per 1,000 Population

Population Population of Age
(millions)

Rate of Natural Increase

Change 2007–2050 (%)

Net Migration Rate per
Population mid-2007

Projected Population

Infant Mortality Rate

Total Fertility Rate

1,000 Population
Regions/ Countries

mid–2050
mid–2025
(millions)

<15

65+
(%)
WORLD 6,625 21 9 1.2 0 7,965 9,294 40 52 2.7 28 7
LATIN AMERICA/ 569 21 6 1.5 -2 691 784 38 24 2.5 30 6
CARIBBEAN
CARIBBEAN 40 19 8 1.1 -3 46 51 27 32 2.5 28 2
CENTRAL AMERICA 148 23 5 1.8 -5 181 205 39 23 2.7 33 5
SOUTH AMERICA 381 21 6 1.5 -1 463 528 38 24 2.4 29 6
Belize 0.3 27 5 2.3 10 0.4 0.6 85 25 3.3 41 4
Bolivia 9.8 29 8 2.1 -1 13.3 16.0 63 51 3.7 38 4
Brazil 189.3 21 6 1.4 -0 228.9 259.8 37 27 2.3 28 6
Colombia 46.2 20 6 1.5 -1 55.6 61.9 34 19 2.4 30 5
Costa Rica 4.5 16 4 1.2 4 5.6 6.3 41 10 1.9 28 6
Dominica 0.1 24 7 1.7 -12 0.1 0.1 20 22.2 3.0 2.9 10
Dominican Republic 9.4 24 5 1.8 -3 11.9 14.7 57 30 2.9 33 6
Ecuador 13.5 26 6 2.0 -4 17.5 20.4 51 25 3.1 33 6
Grenada 0.1 19 7 1.2 -15 0.1 0.1 -12 17 2.1 32 5
Guatemala 13.4 34 6 2.8 -4 19.9 27.5 106 34 4.4 43 4
Honduras 7.1 27 6 2.1 -4 9.7 12.1 70 23 3.3 38 4
Jamaica 2.7 17 6 1.1 -6 3.0 3.4 26 24 2.1 30 8
Mexico 106.5 21 5 1.7 -6 124.7 132.3 24 21 2.4 32 6
Nicaragua 5.6 28 5 2.3 -7 7.5 9.8 75 26 3.2 39 4
Panama 3.3 20 4 1.5 0 4.2 5.0 50 15 2.4 30 6
Paraguay 6.1 27 6 2.1 -2 8.0 9.9 61 36 3.5 36 5
Peru 27.9 21 6 1.5 -4 34.1 39.0 40 24 2.5 32 6
St. Vincent and the 0.1 18 7 1.1 -8 0.1 0.1 -12 18.1 2.0 29 7
Grenadines
Source: 2007 World Population Data Sheet, Population Reference Bureau, 2007. Available at www.prb.org.

“The root causes of

biodiversity loss are
primarily human actions,
embedded in social systems
that are inextricably
intertwined with natural
systems.”
Angela Martin

–Machlis and Forester, 1996

Human Population Dynamics in Protected Areas 

 case 2
Inmigration and the
Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands have
experienced a population increase due
largely to high inmigration. Between
1982 and 1998, the overall annual
population growth rate increased from
6.0 percent to 6.4 percent. People
moved to the islands to take advantage
of the growing tourism industry and
commercial fishing opportunities. This
influx increased pressures on marine
life and introduced new species that
threaten the islands’ fragile ecosystems.
To address this problem, the government

Jupiter Images
placed limits on migration to the
islands.
Source: TNC 2001b

case 3
Using GIS in the Sonoran Desert
Ecoregion, United States and Mexico
The Population-Environment Overlay Mapping Project
(PEOMAP) was a pilot project to map and analyze
population and related socioeconomic data for conservation,
helped TNC’s ecoregional planners for the Sonoran Desert
understand human threats to conservation. This ecoregion,
straddling the U.S.-Mexico border, has experienced rapid
population growth. The 2.3 million inhabitants in the
ecoregion in 1970 increased to 6.4 million in 2000, and
projections show the area reaching 8.8 million persons
by 2010. Increasing per capita demands for resources,
especially water, threaten the delicate biodiversity often
existing on private lands used for agriculture. In many
areas, groundwater is decreasing in excess of 0.3 meters
per year, resulting in a major loss of vegetation along rivers.
PEOMAP results helped determine priority conservation
sites by identifying potential sites experiencing rapid human
population growth.
Sources: TNC 2001b, Gorenflo 2002

 Human Population Dynamics in Protected Areas


case 4
Out-migration from the Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic
The Hispaniolan Pine Forest ecoregion of the Dominican
Central Cordillera is an important part of the Dominican
Republic, making up roughly fifteen percent of the entire
Dominican territory. Many Dominicans and Dominican river
systems rely on this ecoregion for freshwater, including
the 2.2 million inhabitants of Santo Domingo. The area
was traditionally inhabited by herders, coffee growers and
swidden farmers. In the Armando Bermúdez National Park
and Juan B. Pérez Rancier National Park and surrounding
areas, there is a growing trend of skewed sex ratios favoring
males. Data from the 1993 Dominican national census
showed that 44 communities along the border of the two
national parks have a masculinity index of 124 males for
every 100 females, as compared to worldwide sex ratios of
99 men for every 100 women.
In the case of the Dominican Republic, the main reason
for the male-skewed sex ratio is the fact that women are
migrating out of conservation areas in greater numbers
and at a faster rate than males. The pull factors related to
the greater female migration focus mainly on the recent
reorganization of national production and the incorporation
of women versus men into newly emerging non-traditional
employment sectors. These new opportunities give women
the ability to work in the urban and agro-industrial workforce,
when in the past they were frequently kept out of significant
economic sectors.
However, the opportunities women are being provided in the
urban and agro-industrial workforce are often low paying
jobs within the service industry, making push factors the
more likely cause of their out-migration. Four main causes
for the decline in dependency on the domestic mode of
production and the concurrent shift in demand for male vs.
Angel Ripol and Fausto Gomez
female labor—and likewise greater female out-migration—
include: park formation, increased availability of imported
processed foods and goods, the increasing presence of
labor saving devices, and the increasing incursion of Haitian
labor. With the declining need for females in and around
the park areas, women are leaving the rural areas through
marriage, education, and urban jobs.
The migration out of the park areas has both positive and
negative implications for conservation. On the positive
side, migration is decreasing the population of communities
surrounding and in the parks, which will help with long-
term conservation goals. Another positive outcome involves
intensifying production strategies whereby agriculture is
fixed onto permanent landholdings and the slash-and-burn
techniques of the past are declining.
The out-migration is also leading to negative land use
changes. The agro-entrepreneurs in the region are skilled
and upwardly mobile, well connected to urban politics and
financial elites, and have access to large amounts of capital.
They are helping to fund the ������������������������
campesino���������������
out-migration
by buying their land and restructuring it into large land
holdings. Chemical pesticides and fertilizers are used more
frequently on these properties with limited environmental or
legal control.
This case illustrates the complex implications of male-
female ratios on the rural landscapes near protected areas
and the importance of understanding the root causes of
those dynamics in order to develop viable conservation
strategies.
Source: McPherson and Schwartz 2001, WIDTECH 2002
Human Population Dynamics in Protected Areas 

case 5
Participatory mapping and socioeconomic surveys in Bosawas Biosphere Reserve,
Nicaragua
Extending along the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua and Honduras
is the Mosquitia, a tropical moist broadleaf forest. Within the
Nicaraguan Mosquitia is the Bosawas Natural Resources
Reserve that is set aside to help preserve the 1.8 million
acres it encompasses. In 1993, The Nature Conservancy
(TNC) began work with the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) to help with conservation of the area.
They soon found that the biggest threat to conservation in the
reserve was the advancing agricultural industry. However,
the indigenous people who live along the river valleys in
Bosawas have helped to decrease the threat the agricultural
industry poses on the environment. There are about 13,000
indigenous people who have, through their traditional, low-
impact use of natural resources, preserved the surrounding
forest for thousands of years.
To better understand and conserve the Bosawás Natural
Resources Reserve, TNC and Dr. Anthony Stocks worked
with the people living in the reserve to map out the area
and how they use it. The mapping project began with
representatives of the indigenous communities choosing six
multi-community territories to give communal titles. To better
involve and educate the local people, an anthropologist
leading the project and TNC staff moved into each territory
for three to four months. While living in the area they taught
the local people how to use a handheld GPS to map current
use zones.
The indigenous people came up with categories of use that
effectively provide their culture’s perspective on land use
in the area. The indigenous people produced categories
that revolved around the same general themes. First, there
were areas well suited for agriculture along the rivers and
low-lying adjacent areas. These areas are traditionally where
 Human Population Dynamics in Protected Areas
Victor Roberts
indigenous agriculture is practiced within the Bosawás
Reserve. Second came areas for hunting and use of natural
forest products; these areas were sometimes categorized by
frequent or infrequent use. Areas for gold panning—the most
significant source of cash income in the reserve—constituted
a third category the local people created. The fourth category
provided included areas of historical and religious significance.
Every territory also came up with an area that revolved around
the reproduction of plants and animals or conservation. The
areas dedicated to conservation were often very remote and
inaccessible, generally leaving them untouched.
While the mapping was being done, there were other
indigenous people taking a census of the Bosawas Reserve
inhabitants and collecting socio-economic information.
Those administering the census also took the time to
collect and document oral histories of each group’s historic
occupation of the area. Another feature of the mapping
project was agreeing upon boundaries between territories
of the three ethnic groups in the region: Miskito, Mayangna,
and mestizos.
The community-based mapping and socio-economic
surveys conducted in the Bosawas Reserve have laid the
groundwork for organized conservation and sustainable
land use practices within the area. Mapping the area and
creating boundaries has significantly reduced the expansion
of the agricultural frontier. Training of community members
and forest guards is helping to maintain the land boundaries
set forth during the mapping process and manage the land
use in a sustainable manner. This TNC project has helped
the Nicaraguan government develop territorial and reserve
management plans.
Sources: Luz 2001, Chornesky 2001a
references
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Chornesky, Liz, Debbie Forester, Liz Hamilton, and Peter
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Alejandro Sanchez
Human Population Dynamics in Protected Areas 

publication credits
Series Editor: Angela S. Martin
Authors: Emily McWhinney,
Angela S. Martin
Design: Kristen Truitt
Parks in Peril Program Director:
James F. Rieger
Contributions to this bulletin: Former
members of TNC’s Community
Conservation Program including Connie
Campbell, Larry Gorenflo and Ben Piper.
This report is made possible by the
generous support of the American people
through the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID)
through the Award No EDG-A-00-01-
00023-00 for the Parks in Peril Program.
The contents are the responsibility of
The Nature Conservancy and do not
necessarily reflect the views of USAID or
the United States Government.
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a leading
Conservation organization working around the
world to protect ecologically important lands
and waters for nature and people. Since 1951,
TNC has been working with communities,
businesses and people like you to protect
more than 117 million acres of land, 5,000
miles of river, and 100 marine sites around
the world. TNC’s mission is to preserve
the plants, animals and natural communities
that represent the diversity of life on Earth
by protecting the lands and waters they need
to survive.
www.nature.org
Since 1990, The Nature Conservancy, the
United States Agency for International
Angela Martin Development, local government agencies and
non-governmental organizations have been
working together through the Parks in Peril
Program (PiP) to protect and manage more
than 18.2 million hectares of endangered
habitats in 45 protected areas in 18 countries
of Latin America and the Caribbean.
please cite this publication as: PiP works with partner organizations to
improve financing, supportive policies, and
management of individual sites as well as
McWhinney, Emily and Angela S. Martin.
entire systems of protected areas, including
2007. Human Population Dynamics
private, indigenous, and municipal reserves,
in Protected Areas. Innovations in
as well as national parks.
Conservation Series. Parks in Peril
Program. Arlington, VA, USA: The Nature www.parksinperil.org
Conservancy.
©2007 The Nature Conservancy,
Arlington, Virginia, USA
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