One reason it is possible to be optimistic about the future of the Pan Amazon is that none of the countries must deal with an impending demographic explosion. This was not always the case. In the 1970s, high birth rates and Roman Catholic traditions suggested that Latin America was facing a demographic time bomb. Populations in Amazonian countries were expanding by 2.4% to 3.5 % annually, a rate that would have doubled their population every twenty years. The colonization schemes of the 1970s and 1980s were conceived, in part, to create a safety valve for an expanding population. Except for Venezuela, population growth in the Pan Amazonian countries has fallen to between 1% and 0.5% per year, placing them in a group of countries that includes the United States, Canada and Spain. Brazil has the lowest rate, while Ecuador and Bolivia have the highest. Venezuela has complicated this panorama with its economic implosion, which has led to the mass migration of approximately seven million economic refugees between 2014 and 2023. Most have resettled in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, which show uncharacteristically high growth rates during those years. The population growth of the Pan Amazon, stratified by country and temporal period. The mean annual change shows a peak in the 1980s and 1990s. Data sourced from national statistical agencies: Bolivia (INE); Brazil (IBGE); Colombia (DANE); Ecuador (INEC); F. Guiana (INSEE); Guyana (BS); Peru (INEI); Suriname (ABS); Venezuela (INE). Currently, the jurisdictions within the Pan Amazon are home to approximately 43 million…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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