Protected Areas Fund Rural Household Dispersal to Urban Areas in Riverine Amazonia

Abstract

Multi-sited households—which straddle rural and urban realms—are increasingly prevalent in riverine Amazonia. Although research on this collective livelihood strategy has focussed on the consequences for tropical forests, less attention has been given to riverine people’s welfare, or the fish and aquatic resources on which they often depend. Based on research conducted in protected area communities and a major urban centre in the Peruvian Amazon, we detail the sources and forms of capital on which dispersed households draw to jointly make a living. Our findings show that natural capital (specifically fisheries resources) drawn from in and around the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve plays a critical role in facilitating and sustaining household dispersal to urban areas through both direct consumption and nature-human capital substitution. These results indicate that meeting social, economic, and environmental sustainability targets on Amazonian floodplains requires accounting for human mobility and diversified livelihoods across expansive geographic areas.