It has been common to attribute tropical deforestation to population growth and/or migration. This paper finds that this is true only at large and aggregated spatial and temporal scales. When one examines regional-scaled processes, there are numberous mediating factors and more complex demographic processes that account for differences in rates of deforestation. Based upon three years of research in the Altamira region, Xingu Basin, Brazilian Amazon, we differenttiate between period and cohort effects in trajectories of deforestation. We find that every cohort of migrants follows the same overall trajectory of deforestation but that the magnitude of deforestation along a 20 year trajectory is dependent on period effects (such as hyperinflation, credit policy, land policy changes). Moreover, we find that the 20-year trajectory does indeed follow the constraints posed by the development cycle of the domestic group-refleting as it does the changing supply of labor.
demography; brazilian Amazon; deforestation; population
