This work was supported by a CONCYTEC (Peru) -World Bank grant (Contract 011-2019-FONDECYT-BM-INC-INV). In Huayopata we thank the Cuba and Povea families for their hospitality and help during field work.

One of main factors identified as explaining forest loss and degradation in the Selva (the Peruvian Amazon) is the migration of people from the Sierra (Andes highlands), where agricultural conditions are severe, to forest areas in the Selva in search of new land. This paper aims at clarifying the characteristics and process of migration based on interviews with local people near Pucallpa, Ucayali Department, where forest loss and degradation has advanced in recent decades. In the study area, forest loss and degradation progressed by commercial logging after construction of a road connecting between Lima and Pucallpa in 1943. After logging, stock-farming companies and immigrants entered the area, and land uses other than high forest have been expanding. Today, the study area is occupied by people who have immigrated since the 1960s. Many of them earned income by logging until the 1980s, w...