Population Mobility and Development: Unveiling Policy Implications in the Amazon

This paper discusses some key conceptual and policy issues to understand the linkages between population mobility and development in the Amazon. The empirical evidences are from a representative longitudinal sample of individuals, households and communities in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon (NEA) collected between 1990 and 1999. Based on this data it is identified the levels and patterns of rural out-migration (to other rural areas or urban areas) and off-farm employment (labor circulation) within the community, to urban areas or other rural areas, as well as the motivations and reasons to engage in mobility by type of farm household (in order to distinguish older or new cohorts of settlements). It is also assessed the main drivers of population mobility based on previous multivariate studies and how they can inform specific public policies for the region. The paper ends with some implications of the results for policymaking in the Amazon, highlighting the need to understand the multi-scale nature of processes involving the causes and consequences of population mobility on regional development and its impacts on rural and urban areas.