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Environmental Change, Risky Sexual Behavior, and the HIV/AIDS Pandemic: Linkages Through Livelihoods in Rural Haiti

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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.

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Notes

  1. While there is more recent DHS survey data for Haiti, from 2005 to 2006, we chose to use data from 2000 because we were able to obtain high quality satellite imagery data for 1990 and 2000. A useful follow-on project would examine this association mid-decade.

  2. Correlation also exists between the various environmental measures. As would be anticipated, higher levels of proximate vegetation at baseline (1990) are associated with greater change across the period 1990–2000 (0.63, p < 0.00) as well as greater percentage change (0.69, p < 0.00).

  3. Religiosity has been linked to lower risk levels for HIV in several studies including Zaleski and Schiaffino (2000), Elifson et al. (2003) and Lehrer et al. (2006).

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Acknowledgments

This research has benefited from support through the University of Colorado’s Center for the Advancement of Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences (CARTSS), as well as the NICHD-funded University of Colorado Population Center (grant R21 HD51146) for research, administrative, and computing support. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of CARTSS, NIH, or NICHD.

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  1. Department of Sociology, Institute of Behavioral Science, CU Population Center, Population, Environment and Society Programs, University of Colorado, Boulder, Campus Box 483, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

    Lori M. Hunter

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    John Reid-Hresko

  3. Department of Geography, Institute of Behavioral Science, Computing and Research Services, University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Thomas W. Dickinson

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Hunter, L.M., Reid-Hresko, J. & Dickinson, T.W. Environmental Change, Risky Sexual Behavior, and the HIV/AIDS Pandemic: Linkages Through Livelihoods in Rural Haiti. Popul Res Policy Rev 30, 729–750 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-011-9208-3

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