Back to browse results
Environmental Change, Risky Sexual Behavior, and the HIV/AIDS Pandemic: Linkages Through Livelihoods in Rural Haiti
Authors: Hunter, Lori; Reid-Hresko, John; Dickinson, Thomas
Source: Population Research and Policy Review, Volume 30, Number 5, October 2011 , pp. 729-750(22), DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11113-011-9208-3
Topic(s): Environmental health
HIV/AIDS
Sexual behavior
Country: Latin American/Caribbean
  Haiti
Published: OCT 2011
Abstract: Abstract: Local natural resources are central to rural livelihoods across much of the developing world. Such “natural capital“ represents one of several types of assets available to households as they craft livelihood strategies. In order to explore the potential for environmental scarcity and change to contribute to perpetuation of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we examine the association between declining natural capital and engaging in risky sexual behaviors, as potentially another livelihood strategy. Such an association has been demonstrated in Kenya and Tanzania, through the fish-for-sex trade. To explore the possibility of this connection within rural Haitian livelihoods we use Demographic and Health Survey data, with a focus on rural women, combined with vegetation measures generated from satellite imagery. We find that lack of condom use in recent sexual encounters is associated with local environmental scarcity—controlling for respondent age, education, religion and knowledge of AIDS preventive measures. The results suggest that explicit consideration of the environmental dimensions of HIV/AIDS may be of relevance in scholarship examining factors shaping the pandemic. Keywords: Deforestation; Environment; Haiti; HIV/AIDS; Rural livelihoods; Natural resources; Population; Remote sensing