This study attempts to explore the causes of deforestation and the developmentof agroforests using household data collected from 60 randomly selected com-munities in Sumatra. We found that decreases in inherited land per householdand increases in the number of male workers and the dependency ratio led to theclearance of primary forests, whereas change in the inheritance system from amatrilineal to a bilateral system did not significantly influence the pace of defor-estation. We also found that wealthier households tend to clear forest and developagroforests more actively than their less wealthy counterparts.