One proposal for preserving
rain forests is to
promote the adoption of
Line
new agricultural technolo-
(5)
gies, such as improved
plant varieties and use of
chemical herbicides, which
would increase productivity
and slow deforestation by
(10)
reducing demand for new
cropland. Studies have
shown that farmers in
developing countries who
have achieved certain levels
(15)
of education, wealth, and
security of land tenure are
more likely to adopt such
technologies. But these
studies have focused on
(20)
villages with limited land
that are tied to a market
economy rather than on
the relatively isolated, selfsufficient
communities with
(25)
ample land characteristic of
rain-forest regions.
A recent
study of the Tawahka people
of the Honduran rain forest
found that farmers with some
(30)
formal education were more
likely to adopt improved plant
varieties but less likely to
use chemical herbicides
and that those who spoke
(35)
Spanish (the language of
the market economy) were
more likely to adopt both
technologies.
Nonland
wealth was also associated
17
(40)
with more adoption of both
technologies, but availability
of uncultivated land reduced
the incentive to employ the
productivity-enhancing tech-
(45)
nologies. Researchers
also measured land-tenure
security: in Tawahka
society, kinship ties are a
more important indicator of
(50)
this than are legal property
rights, so researchers
measured it by a household’s
duration of residence
in its village. They found
(55)
that longer residence correlated
with more adoption
of improved plant varieties
but less adoption of
chemical herbicides.
