Migration and Environment in the Context of Globalization

Human migration and population growth, in concert with globalization trends, greatly affect the environment and conservation efforts. In the Americas, the movement of people, capital, goods, and services has caused different types of ecosystem change, including deforestation. Urbanization, a dominant trend in the Americas, is a two-edged sword for conservation, moving human populations away from rural and protected areas, but also increasing per capita demand for energy, goods, and services. Migration to the forest frontier and the abandonment of marginal rural land present opposite but equally difficult ecological challenges. Projected climate change will also complicate both conservation and migration flows, particularly in developing countries with limited economic and technical capacity. However, better integration of ecological, demographic, and sociological data and theory can lead to the development of predictive models, which will help us to understand and project human migration patterns and their dynamic relationship with ecological change. This interdisciplinary work could lead to the successful development of long-range conservation policy and interventions.