Journal Article

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Acai Palm Management in the Amazon Estuary: Course for Conservation or Passage to Plantations?
(2004) Weinstein, Stephanie; Moegenburg, Susan
"In the late 1980s, the acai (Euterpe oleracea) fruit and palmito extraction system of eastern Amazonia was heralded as a promising alternative to deforestation that could simultaneously provide income to rural producers and protect forest integrity. We tested these claims in five communities located along a distance gradient from the largest regional market in Belem, Brazil. We evaluated the market accessibility and manage strategies of acai producers, and assessed the impacts of management on forest characteristics. In contrast to other NTFP systems, we found that distance to the major market is not a limiting factor for acai sales because throughout the region intermediaries are readily available to transport intensification of palm management, which results in the conversion of native floodplain forests into acai-dominated forests that closely resemble plantations. We conclude that the acai system is not typical of other NTFP and should not be regarded as a model for merging forest conservation with rural development. However, the increased demand for acai, especially from educated consumers, together with the ease of production and marketing, present an opportunity to develop the acai system into one in which both rural livelihoods and forest integrity are supported."
Acesso à Agua Para Consumo Humano e Aspectos de Saúde Pública na Amazônia Legal
(2012) Giatti, Leandro Luiz; Cutolo, Silvana Audrá
"A região da Amazônia Legal no Brasil apresenta desafios quanto ao acesso à água para sua população, mesmo com grande abundância de recursos hídricos. Este estudo tem como objetivo explorar condicionantes de acesso à água para consumo humano, considerando aspectos ambientais, socioculturais e de infraestrutura. Para isso, analisam-se: a precária cobertura por saneamento básico na região, por meio de macroindicadores; e estudos de caso em distintas escalas espaciais: comunidade indígena; cidade de pequeno porte, comunidades ribeirinhas, e uma cidade de grande porte, Manaus, maior centro urbano da Amazônia Pan-Amazônica. Por fim, empreende-se uma discussão interdisciplinar sobre as dificuldades de acesso a água no âmbito da saúde pública, explorando a importância de aspectos que se manifestam de modo evidente nas escalas espaciais."
Amazon Deforestation and Climate Change
(1990) Shukla, J.; Nobre, C.; Sellers, P.
"A coupled numerical model of the global atmosphere and biosphere has been used to assess the effects of Amazon deforestation on the regional and global climate. When the tropical forests in the model were replaced by degraded grass (pasture), there was a significant increase in surface temperature and a decrease in evapotranspiration and precipitation over Amazonia. In the simulation, the length of the dry season also increased; such an increase could make reestablishment of the tropical forests after massive deforestation particularly difficult."
Cambiamento Climatico, Deforestazione e Destino dell'Amazzonia
(2008) Alberti, Giorgio
"Climate change, deforestation and the fate of Amazon. Climate change, deforestation and the fate of Amazon. Understanding and mitigation the impact of the increasing population and global economic activities on tropical forests is one of the greatest challenges for scientists and policy makers. A summary of some of the latest findings and thinking on this topic has been reported by Malhi and colleagues in a recent paper published on Science. An overview and comments on this paper is herein proposed."
Collaborative Monitoring of Production and Costs of Timber Harvest Operations in the Brazilian Amazon
(2005) Pokorny, Benno; Steinbrenner, Max
"Timber companies and policy makers in the Brazilian Amazon urgently need financial information on forest management. Results from a few experiments, case studies, and surveys have been groundbreaking, but are insufficient. A strategic partnership between timber companies and research organizations is needed to generate additional information. This paper presents a tool for monitoring production and costs of forest operations to facilitate such collaboration. The tool provides useful information for companies and, at the same time, generates reliable data for research. Selected results are presented on production, capacity, and costs to demonstrate the usefulness of the information that can be generated. These results are based on the first 2 years of implementation by a company in the State of Para, Brazil. This pilot project confirmed that the tool is simple and relevant. Its successful implementation requires significant investment, and will be applicable only to companies interested in changing from conventional logging to reduced-impact logging, especially those seeking Forest Stewardship Council certification. Successful implementation of the tool will also depend on it generating readily understood and highly relevant results for the companies, and receiving extensive support during the first 2 years."
Common Property among Indigenous Peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon
(2006) Bremner, Jason; Lu, Flora
"Policies promoting conservation of indigenous lands in the Amazon would benefit greatly from a closer examination of the local common property institutions that influence resource use. The goals of this paper are to summarise findings from past research related to common property institutions among indigenous and traditional peoples of the Amazon, and to examine with empirical data, the complex patterns of communal resource management exhibited in a cross-cultural study population in the Ecuadorian Amazon. We find that: (1) the diverse common property institutions functioning among indigenous populations of the Ecuadorian Amazon can be loosely grouped into individual and communal arrangements; (2) conceptions of ownership and rights vary both inter- and intraethnically and; (3) within communities, institutions and the rights they grant vary greatly between different types of resources. Evidence from the literature suggests that indigenous institutions are effective at securing exclusive access and withdrawal rights for community members, but that these institutions are less effective at further managing resources. Our results suggest, however, the existence of diverse management arrangements for a multitude of resources. The growing number of indigenous land conservation strategies demands further research on these complex social institutions to ensure that strategies are both locally appropriate and effective, and thus we suggest several important areas for future research."
Commons Management and Ecotourism: Ethnographic Evidence from the Amazon
(2010) Stronza, Amanda Lee
"The paper evaluates the relationship between ecotourism and commons management. Social and economic impacts of ecotourism in an indigenous village in the Peruvian Amazon are considered in relation to opportunities for collective action to manage common pool resources, including wildlife, forests, and river habitats. Longitudinal, ethnographic data gathered over 12 years about a joint venture ecotourism project between a private company and a local community show three outcomes that support commons management and three outcomes that challenge it. The outcomes in favor of commons management include: direct economic returns that act as conservation incentives, strengthened organization resulting from participatory management of ecotourism, and expanded networks of support from outside actors. Outcomes that are challenging the potential for collective action include: direct economic returns that enable expanded individual production and extraction, a new spirit of individual entrepreneurship that threatens to debilitate traditional social relations and institutions, and a conservation ethic that fosters dualistic thinking about people and nature and the zoning of places where resources are used vs. where they are preserved."
Decentralization and REDD+ in Brazil
(2011) Toni, Fabiano
"Recent discussions on REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, plus conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks) have raised optimism about reducing carbon emissions and deforestation in tropical countries. If approved under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), REDD+ mechanisms may generate a substantial influx of financial resources to developing countries. Some authors argue that this money could reverse the ongoing process of decentralization of forest policies that has spread through a large number of developing countries in the past two decades. Central states will be accountable for REDD+ money, and may be compelled to control and keep a significant share of REDD+ funds. Supporters of decentralization argue that centralized implementation of REDD+ will be ineffective and inefficient. In this paper, I examine the relation between subnational governments and REDD+ in Brazil. Data show that some state governments in the Brazilian Amazon have played a key role in creating protected areas (PAs) after 2003, which helped decrease deforestation rates. Governors have different stimuli for creating PAs. Some respond to the needs of their political constituency; others have expectations to boost the forest sector so as to increase fiscal revenues. Governors also have led the discussion on REDD+ in Brazil since 2008. Considering their interests and political power, REDD+ is unlikely to curb decentralization in Brazil."
Deforestation and the Social Impacts of Soy for Biodiesel: Perspectives of Farmers in the South Brazilian Amazon
(2011) Lima, Mendelson; Skutsch, Margaret; Costa, Gerlane de Medeiros
"Cultivation of soy for human and animal food has been growing rapidly in Brazil in the last thirty years, and the recent emergence of a biodiesel market in Brazil has stimulated this further. Soy occupies large parts of the Cerrado biome and has now reached the Amazon, and concerns have been raised about both the environmental and social impacts of this. This study combined data from literature with interview surveys in three areas in the soy belt: Sorriso, in the Cerrado; Guarantã do Norte and Alta Floresta, in the transitional zone between the Cerrado and the Amazon biome, and Santarém, which is fully in the Amazon biome, to understand these impacts from the perspective of the soy farmers, the other farmers, and the laborers. From the literature it is clear that at least 80% of the direct deforestation is due to clearance for cattle rearing, and we estimate that 13-18% is due to soy, although less than 6% can be attributed to biodiesel, since most soy is used for other products. In the Amazon biome, the Forest Law, the Soy Moratorium, improved monitoring and the general unsuitability of the land have combined to keep soy cultivation at a low level so far despite the construction of a port at Santarém, which makes this area much more accessible. In the site in the transition area little soybean is cultivated due to unsuitable configuration of land and to transportation costs. In the Cerrado, however, soy has proved itself to be a viable alternative to timber, as well as replacing grazing, which is most likely causing indirect deforestation elsewhere, although this effect could not be measured in this study. More than half of the soy farmers interviewed claimed to have converted grazing land as opposed to forest, although grazing land often contains some secondary forest as well as grassland. In the transition areas, the expectation of farmers is that when transport costs fall due to road improvements, soy will be cultivated in an integrated rotation system on grazing land, improving degraded pastures. Soy farmers, laborers and non-soy farmers all have a positive view of the social impacts of soy, borne out by the fact that average incomes in Sorriso, where there has been an enormous increase in soy production over the last 20 years, are 4.6 times higher than those in Guarantã do Norte, which is still dominated by cattle rearing. The PNPB program, which aims for social inclusion of small family farmers in the production of biofuel feedstock, has succeeded in forcing large soy purchasing companies to assist essentially uneconomic farms and has enabled some small farmers in agrarian reform settlements to profit. However, we found evidence of plots changing hands and being consolidated by farmers with greater skills and capital, resulting in incipient class formation. Moreover, the companies are selective in their choice of agrarian settlement, and were not operating in those in which land holdings are very small or where the terrain is too broken up for large-scale mechanization."
Deforestation Drivers in Southwest Amazonia: Comparing Smallholder Farmers in Iñapari, Peru, and Assis Brasil, Brazil
(2010) Zambrano, Angelica M. Almeyda; Broadbent, Eben N.; Schmink, Marianne; Perz, Stephen; Asner, Gregory P.
"Broad interpretation of land use and forest cover studies has been limited by the biophysical and socio-economic uniqueness of the landscapes in which they are carried out and by the multiple temporal and spatial scales of the underlying processes. We coupled a land cover change approach with a political ecology framework to interpret trends in multi-temporal remote sensing of forest cover change and socio-economic surveys with smallholders in the towns of Iñapari, Peru and Assis Brasil, Brazil in southwest Amazonia. These adjacent towns have similar biogeophysical conditions, but have undergone differing development approaches, and are both presently undergoing infrastructure development for the new Interoceanic highway. Results show that forest cover patterns observed in these two towns cannot be accounted for using single land use drivers. Rather, deforestation patterns result from interactions of national and regional policies affecting financial credit and road infrastructure, along with local processes of market integration and household resources. Based on our results we develop recommendations to minimise deforestation in the study area. Our findings are relevant for the sustainability of land use in the Amazon, in particular for regions undergoing large-scale infrastructure development projects."
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: How Fast is it Occurring?
(1982) Fearnside, Philip M.
"Estimates of how much of the Brazilian Amazon's rainforest has been cleared, and how fast this process is presently occurring vary sharply. Even more striking are the differences in interpretation of how fast forest clearing is likely to be in the future, and whether present trends are a cause for concern. It is important to examine available information on present rates and likely trends for the region as a whole, and to examine in greater detail the deforestation process in one of the current foci of felling activity: the Federal Territory of Rondonia."
The Dream of Making a Living from the Land: Amazon Settler Women as Change Agents
(2009) Naase, Karin Marita
"The purpose of this paper is to determine the role of women in the so called caminhada (march) to a land reform project in the State of Pará, Brazil. When a woman decides to join the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) (Landless Workers’ Movement) she may enter into conflict with her social environment. In the light of the changes happening due to her militancy, I want to elucidate the reasons for her involvement, examine female contributions during the settlement process and the changes this process may cause in their lives. The analysis is based upon a fieldwork conducted in a land reform hamlet near the city of Castanhal in northeastern Pará. Three case studies of female militancy are examined. Some of the outcomes of this analysis are that the role of women in this process is prominent because they are its most important support; they are assuming pioneer functions, organizing domestic and public tasks in the settlement and play the role of articulators between the different households. Due to their militancy poor urban and rural women are able to step out of their invisibility, often suffered in Brazilian society, and make an important contribution to the construction of a new life."
The Ecology and Harvest of Andiroba Seeds for Oil Production in the Brazilian Amazon
(2004) Plowden, Cambell
"Andiroba (Carapa guianensis Aubl.: Meliaceae) is a canopy tree found in moist tropical forests in Amazon, Central America and Africa. Manual and mechanical methods have been used to extract oil from its seeds for use in insect repellent and traditional medicine, and as an ingredient in mosquito repellent candles and medicinal soap. Forest communities need a better understanding of the ecological and economic aspects of aniroba seed and oil production to decide if and how collecting more of these seeds can be done sustainably and profitably. I worked with Tembe Indians in the eastern Brazilian Amazon in 1998-99 to investigate the ecology and economics of andiroba seed production. We found that andiroba tree (?10 cm DBH) density in mostly intact forest near Tekohaq village averaged 6.5 trees ha-1. While some trees started reproducing in the 10-20 cm DBH class, 46-63 per cent of trees ? 30cm DBH had flowers or fruits in the two seasons observed. Trees reached peak flowering in the mid-rainy season in March, and most fruit fell in the early dry season in June and July. In 1999 a group of forty-six reproducing trees yielded an average of .8 kg of seeds tree-1. Up to 29 per cent of these seeds had been infested by moth and fly larvae, partially consumed by mammals or germinated. Each tree produced an estimated average of 1.2 kg seeds with 33 percent being removed by mammals. This production is much less than the 50-300 kg seeds per tree averages cited in other accounts. The study's one measurement of seed transformation to oil (14.4 kg seed to a litre oil yield)."
The Emergence and Outcomes of Collective Action: An Institutional and Ecosystem Approach
(2002) Futemma, Celia; de Castro, Fábio; Silva-Forsberg, Maria Clara; Ostrom, Elinor
"Studies of collective action often focus on features of the participants and the managed ecosystem. The social analysis of the participants helps to uncover the factors driving participation in those local enterprises such as individual interest to participate and ability of the group to organize. An ecological analysis of the managed ecosystem helps to unveil how characteristics of a resource influence the type of appropriation system that is designed and how the local institutional arrangement influences the sustainability of common-pool resources. In this paper, we broaden the social and ecological context of the analysis of common-pool resources by investigating the features of non-participants, in addition to participants, to explore the factors that cause individuals to refrain from contributing in collective action."
Environmental Licensing and Land Aggregation: An Agent-Based Approach to Understanding Ranching and Land Use in Rural Rondônia
(2011) Bell, Andrew Reid
"Agricultural development and climate change will be two of the major stressors on the Amazon natural-human system in the decades to come. Environmental licensing for rural properties is being implemented in several states in the Brazilian Amazon with the goal of restoring forests in agricultural landscapes and mediating the impacts of these stressors. This study presents an agent-based model of ranching and land exchange, informs it with empirical results from social research in the Ji-Paraná River Basin, Rondônia, Brazil, and investigates the social, economic, and environmental outcomes that can be expected as a result of environmental licensing in the context of climate change. Model results informed by these data suggest that although an environmental licensing scheme with monitoring and enforcement may increase the level of forested land in ranching landscapes, it may do so at the expense of the small producer. To the extent that effective monitoring and enforcement exist, a focus on larger holdings will help to mediate this negative social impact. These results suggest that a middle ground can be found in cases where current environmental goals conflict with legacies of past colonization and resource-use regimes."
Foraging Behaviour of Brazilian Riverine and Coastal Fishers: How much is Explained by the Optimal Foraging Theory?
(2011) Lopes, Priscila F. M.; Clauzet, Mariana; Hanazaki, Natalia; Ramires, Milena; Silvano, Renato A. M.; Begossi, Alpina
"Optimal Foraging Theory (OFT) is here applied to analyse the foraging behaviour of Brazilian artisanal fishers of the Atlantic coast (Itacuruçá and São Paulo Bagre villages) and of the inland Amazonian region (Jarauá and Ebenezer villages). Two OFT predictions are tested. Hypotheis1: A fisher who travels to more distant sites should return with more fish, and Hypothesis 2: The further a fisher goes, the longer s/he should stay fishing in a patch. OFT did not explain fishers' behaviour (non-significant regressions for coastal villages) or explain it in specific seasons (low water season for one Amazonian village: H1 r 2 =24.1; H2 r 2 =37.2) and in specific habitats (e.g., lakes and backwaters in Jarauá village, Lakes: H1 r 2 =13.5; H2 r 2 =24.0; Backwaters: H1 r 2 =34.4; H2 r 2 =46.5). The findings can indicate areas or seasons that are under higher fishing pressure, when fishers try to get the best out of a situation without any concern about resource conservation. By knowing the variables that influence fishers' decision-making processes, management initiatives may be more fine-tuned to the local reality and are thus more likely to succeed."
Forest Clearing Dynamics and the Expansion of Landholdings in Apuí, a Deforestation Hotspot on Brazils Transamazon Highway
(2011) Carrero, Gabriel C.
"We present a local-scale case study in the Rio Juma Settlement Project (RJSP) in Apuí, a deforestation hotspot in the southern portion of Brazils state of Amazonas. We analyze land accumulation and land use strategies of households with a view to elucidating how their strategies are shaping deforestation. More than 76% of the household sample was from southern Brazil, and around 72% of them migrated to older expansion frontiers before reaching Apuí. The percentage of properties with legal land titles was up to five times less while land accumulation was much greater than reported for other settlement projects in Brazil. Land use change followed different patterns depending on whether the lot had been obtained with 100% forest cover or with inherited land use. Regression-tree analysis showed that the size of the cattle herd and the total area of the property do not always explain the area deforested, nor is the size of the deforested area necessarily related to productive activities. Lack of income obtained from livestock indicated that at least 30% of the cases studied were related to the speculative nature of land acquisition and deforestation. Increasing consolidation of land in larger, more highly capitalized ranches indicates the potential for high rates of deforestation in the future, even when the profitability of livestock is questionable."
Il Bacino Amazzonico e Leffetto Serra
(2005) Grassi, Giacomo
"Un numero della rivista Global Change Biology (vol 10, issue 5, maggio 2004) è stato interamente dedicato alla presentazione dei risultati del 'Large-scale BiosphereAtmosphere Experiment in Amazonia' (LBA), un vasto progetto internazionale e multidisciplinare coordinato dal Brasile. Lobiettivo del progetto è ambizioso: capire il funzionamento del bacino amazzonico come unica entità nellambito del sistema terrestre, nonché le sue modificazioni a seguito dellazione antropica. I 26 articoli che compaiono in questo numero speciale coprono una vasta gamma di argomenti: dagli stock di carbonio ed azoto nella biomassa e nel suolo ai flussi di gas serra e di composti organici volatili (VOC) dalla vegetazione, dalle aree umide fino agli effetti del cambio duso del suolo."
Integrating Conservation and Development in the Peruvian Amazon
(2009) Gockel, Catherine Kilbane; Gray, Leslie C.
"Recent studies have critiqued integrated conservation and development projects for failing to attain either of their two major goals. This paper evaluates one such project in Peru’s Pacaya Samiria National Reserve, which entailed community-based natural resource-management plans for palm and aquatic resources. We conducted semi-structured interviews with reserve inhabitants (n=57) during May 2007, as well as key-informant interviews with state and non-governmental organization (NGO) staff. Monitoring data and reports from NGOs were important secondary sources in this study. The intervention has improved the status of targeted species and has improved the well-being of participants. This project worked well for a number of reasons, including the long-term commitment of the implementing organization, the social capital and legitimacy provided by participation in management groups, and the fact that local knowledge was incorporated into resource-management techniques."
Integrating Ecosystem Management, Protected Areas, and Mammal Conservation in the Brazilian Amazon
(2006) Azevedo-Ramos, Claudia; Domingues do Amaral, Benedito; Nepstad, Daniel; Soares Filho, Britaldo; Nasi, Robert
"The Amazon forest has been converted to a matrix of pristine and modified habitats. Landscape-scale biodiversity conservation requires an understanding of species' distributions over this matrix to guarantee both effective protection and use for present and future generations. In this study, we evaluated how much of the existing and future planned protected areas (PAs) would be contributing to the conservation of Brazilian Amazon mammals (N = 399), including threatened species (N = 51). Currently, almost 37% of Brazilian Amazon is protected and that may increase to 46% if planned PAs are implemented. In the current PA system, 22% are indigenous land and 11% are sustainable use units, e.g., production forests. Only one-fifth of the whole range of mammal species occurring in Brazilian Amazon is actually protected by Brazilian PAs. However, considering only the part of the ranges within the Brazilian Amazon, and therefore under the scope of Brazilian actions, Brazilian PAs assume an important role in the protection of 39% of mammal distribution ranges, particularly the threatened species (39%). These results suggest that an integrated network of protected areas among Amazon countries would be necessary to increase their efficiency in mammal conservation. The need for strengthening of the forest sector and good management practices in Brazil appears critical for the maintenance of large extents of forest and species conservation. Under such a scenario, the contribution of developed nations and international agencies must assume an important role for the maintenance and enlargement of the protected area network in Amazon region."
La Deforestazione Nascosta dell'Amazzonia
(2005) Grassi, Giacomo
"The hidden deforestation of Amazon. A recent study on the extent of the deforestation in the Brasilian Amazon suggests that deforested area doubles when selective logging is taken into account. The main results of this research are briefly presented and commented in the light of recent discussions in the scientific and political ground."
Landscape Images in Amazonian Narrative: The Role of Oral History in Environmental Research
(2007) Arce-Nazario, Javier A.
"Oral history still plays a minor role in the environmental research disciplines. In this study, I present the richness of Amazonian narrative extracted from oral history, as a source of environmental facts and symbols concerning how Amazonians interact and perceive their ecosystem. Narratives are analysed as a set of structures that reflect on the biological, cultural and physical elements of the Amazonian landscape. The oral history interview process allows Amazonians to reflect on their landscape aesthetics preferences, leading to bottom-up proposals for Amazonian conservation, and reconstruction of landscape changes. Finally, the study proposes the oral history approach as a method that democratises the researching and interpretation of landscapes."
A Modernização Ecológica Conquistando Hegemonia nos Discursos Ambientais: o Caso da Zona Franca de Manaus
(2012) Brianezi, Thaís; Sorrentino, Marcos
"A Zona Franca de Manaus (ZFM) foi criada em 1967 pelo governo da ditadura militar brasileira, de acordo com um discurso nacionalista que apresentava a região amazônica como um território estratégico que era preciso ocupar e desenvolver. Apesar de a visão do grande vazio não ter sido apagada do imaginário popular, desde os anos de 1970 tem ganhado força a percepção da floresta como herança cultural e biológica a ser preservada. Estas mudanças nos discursos mais gerais sobre a Amazônia foram acompanhadas por um deslocamento do discurso de legitimação dos incentivos fiscais gozados pelas indústrias de Manaus, em um movimento relacionado ao processo de construção de hegemonia no campo ambiental, marcado pela emergência da chamada modernização ecológica. Utilizando a análise crítica do discurso, este artigo mostra como se constituiu o argumento de que as empresas em Manaus protegem a floresta, assentado em um roteiro de dupla ameaça: de desemprego e de desmatamento. As informações e dados foram levantados por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica, entrevistas semiestruturadas e observações diretas em reuniões e eventos corporativos. Fizeram parte do corpus, ainda, as transcrições oficiais de 64 pronunciamentos em plenário dos três senadores e oito deputados federais do Amazonas em 2007; 125 matérias publicadas no caderno de Economia do jornal A Crítica entre 1º de janeiro e 30 de junho, e quatro edições da revista institucional Suframa Hoje, no mesmo ano."
Mudanças Sociais e Gestão Ecológica em Questão: A Experiência de Mamirauá
(2012) Moura, Edila Arnaud Ferreira; De Castro, Edna Maria Ramos
"Estudo sobre as mudanças sociais que envolveram as populações tradicionais desde a criação de uma unidade de conservação ambiental, no ano de 1990, na região do Médio Solimões, Amazônia brasileira, com o interesse de conservar uma área reconhecida como o maior ecossistema de várzea do mundo. A análise situa os produtores locais em relação ao mercado ecológico e aos agentes do desenvolvimento sustentável. O estudo se refere a 49 localidades da floresta alagada amazônica, com informações relativas aos anos de 1991 a 2006. A análise identifica os agentes sociais que integram o campo socioambiental que se constrói com as políticas de intervenção socioambiental."
Natural Resources, Social Space and Livelihood Strategies in Land Reform Settlements in the Brazilian Amazon (Southeast of Pará)
(2010) Naase, Karin Marita
"Nearly 38% of all families living in settlements of Brazilian land reform are in the Amazon. One of the problems is that large segments of the settlers do not fit into the target group of land reform and more than 50% of the allotments conceded by land reform already have been commercialized by the settlers – even before receiving the final land title. This paper is based upon field research carried on in the southeast of State of Pará with the intention of analyzing the livelihood strategies of land reform settlers and relationship between these settlers and their habitat (Settlement Project), understood as social space and space of natural resources. The guiding questions of this inquiry are: which are the settlers’ livelihood strategies? Are they sustainable? Which are the reasons of the settlers to leave the hamlet and commercialize their allotments? How is their relationship to the natural and social environment of the settlement? How do public policies interfere? Issues related to public goods and self-governed common-pool resources are very important to these questions. The social organization of the settlers, as well as the institutional guaranties given by the State are therefore the central axis of this article."
Near Real Time Detection of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon Using MODIS Imagery
(2006) Shimabukuro, Yosio E.; Duarte, Valdete; Anderson, Liana O.; Valeriano, Dalton M.; Arai, Egídio; de Freitas, Ramon M.; Rudorff, Bernardo F. T.; Moreira, Maurício A.
"The objective of this paper is to provide near real time information about deforestation detection (DETER) in the entire Brazilian Amazon using MODIS high temporal resolution images. It is part of the operational deforestation monitoring project to estimate the annual deforestation rate in the Brazilian Amazon (PRODES). A rapid deforestation detection method was designed to support land use policies in this region. In order to evaluate the proposed method a test site was selected covering a Landsat ETM+ scene (227/68) located in Mato Grosso State. For this purpose a multitemporal series of MODIS surface reflectance images (MOD09) and the corresponding ETM+ images from June to October 2002 were analyzed. It was found that small deforested areas (lower than 15 ha) were detected by MODIS images with lower accuracy when compared with ETM+ images. As the deforested areas increase MODIS and ETM+ results tend to converge. This procedure showed to be adequate to operationally detect and monitor deforested areas and has been used since 2004 as part of a government plan to control the Amazon deforestation."
Participatory Stakeholder Workshops to Mitigate Impacts of Road Paving in the Southwestern Amazon
(2007) Mendoza, Elsa; Perz, Stephen; Schmink, Marianne; Nepstad, Daniel
"Infrastructure projects are crucial for regional development, but they often lack participatory planning processes. As a result, they often generate negative socio-economic and biophysical impacts, threatening local livelihoods as well as environmental conservation. The Amazon is an instructive example, where new infrastructure projects may repeat the deforestation and social conflict seen around earlier road projects. This article considers the case of the Inter-Oceanic Highway, being paved through the tri-national frontier in the southwestern Amazon where Brazil, Bolivia and Peru meet. To raise local awareness and to facilitate public participation in planning to mitigate negative road impacts, we conducted multistakeholder workshops in eighteen municipalities along this road corridor. Participants identified and prioritised infrastructure, social, environmental, economic and political problems related to road paving. They also created their own land-use maps for purposes of land-use planning. Such exercises can broaden public participation in planning to mitigate the negative impacts of infrastructure projects."
Priority Areas for Establishing National Forests in the Brazilian Amazon
(2002) Verissimo, Adalberto; Cochrane, Mark A.; Sousa, Carlos; Salomao, Rodney
"Brazil will benefit if it gains control of its vast Amazonian timber resources. Without immediate planning, the fate of much of the Amazon will be decided by predatory and largely unregulated timber interests. Logging in the Amazon is a transient process of natural resource mining. Older logging frontiers are being exhausted of timber resources and will face severe wood shortages within 5 yr. The Brazilian government can avoid the continued repetition of this process in frontier areas by establishing a network of National Forests (Florestas Nacionais or Flonas) to stabilize the timber industry and simultaneously protect large tracts of forest. Flonas currently comprise less than 2% of the Brazilian Amazon (83,000 km2). If all these forests were used for sustainable logging, they would provide less than 10% of the demand for Amazonian timber. To sustainably supply the present and near-future demand for timber, approximately 700,000 km2 of the Amazon forest needs to be brought into well-managed production. Brazil's National Forest Program, launched in 2000, is designed to create at least 400,000 km2 of new Flonas. Objective decision-making tools are needed to site these new national forests. We present here a method for optimally locating the needed Flonas that incorporates information on existing protected areas, current vegetation cover, areas of human occupation, and timber stocks. The method combines these data in a spatial database that makes it possible to model the economic potential of the region's various forests as a function of their accessibility and timber values while constraining model solutions for existing areas of protection or human occupation. Our results indicate that 1.15 x 106 km2 of forests (23% of the Brazilian Amazon) could be established as Flonas in a manner that will promote sustainable forest management; these Flonas would also serve as buffer zones for fully protected areas such as parks and reserves."
REDD+ for the Poor for REDD+? About the Limitations of Environmental Policies in the Amazon and the Potential of Achieving Environmental Goals Through Pro-Poor Policies
(2013) Pokorny, Benno; Scholz, Imme; de Jong, Wil
"Once again, the international community focuses on the preservation of Amazonian forests, in particular through a bundle of initiatives grouped under the term of REDD+. Initially focusing on reducing carbon emissions, the REDD+ process became increasingly linked with developmental goals that represent the primary interest of all Amazon countries. In consequence, REDD+ can be seen as another attempt to achieve the twin goals of environmental protection and rural development, and consequently, relies on the strategies and tools of past efforts. Against this background, we explore past experiences with key strategies for environmental protection and poverty alleviation in the Amazon to critically reflect about the potential of REDD+ to contribute to sustainable local development in the region. The analysis demonstrates that initiatives that pursued environmental goals mostly led to more restrictions and bureaucratic barriers to local forest users, while the prevailing approaches to promote rural dwellers showed ambivalent environmental outcomes. Reasons for these unsatisfactory results include the sectoral alignment of the measures and the poor coordination and lack of coherence with decisive policy areas. Most critically, the environmental and social initiatives themselves rely on the classic development approach widely disregarding smallholders' capacities to contribute to local development. The manifold pilot activities emerging under the new REDD+ framework tend to repeat these shortcomings, thereby further accelerating the replacement of local socio-productive schemes with unsustainable land uses. In view of the growing consensus about the ecological incompatibility, social limitations and economic risks of classic development, an alternative vision of development is needed, which more consciously takes into account the immense social and environmental potential of the region. Considering that REDD+ is still at the start, there might be possibilities to re-adjust the framework and thereby turn it into a real contribution to the sustainable development of rural Amazon."
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+): Transaction Costs of Six Peruvian Projects
(2013) Thompson, Olivia R. Rendón; Paavola, Jouni; Healey, John R.; Jones, Julia P. G.; Baker, Timothy R.; Torres, Jorge
"Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has received strong support as a major component of future global climate change policy. The financial mechanism of REDD+ is payment for the ecosystem service of carbon sequestration in tropical forests that is expected to create incentives for conservation of forest cover and condition. However, the costs of achieving emissions reduction by these means remain largely unknown. We assess the set-up, implementation, and monitoring costs, i.e., collectively the transaction costs, of six of the first seven REDD+ project designs from the Peruvian Amazon and compare them with established projects in Brazil and Bolivia. The estimated costs vary greatly among the assessed projects from US$0.16 to 1.44 ha-1 yr-1, with an average of US$0.73 ha-1 yr-1, though they are comparable to earlier published estimates. The results indicate that the costs of implementing REDD+ are highly uncertain for participating developing countries because of issues such as inadequate project design and how additionality is determined. Furthermore, some insight is obtained into how different activities to reduce deforestation and forest degradation, the type of implementer, and project location affect implementation costs of REDD+ projects. Even with these first estimates, the cost of preserving existing intact forests in the Peruvian Amazon may have been underestimated."
Reducing Negative Impacts of Road Paving in the Amazon
(2008) Mendoza, Elsa; Perz, Stephen; Schmink, Marianne; Nepstad, Daniel
"Infrastructure projects are crucial for regional development, but they also bring negative social impacts such as land conflicts, as well as ecological impacts such as deforestation along with carbon emissions and loss of biodiversity. A reason for these negative impacts is that large-scale infrastructure projects lack a process to incorporate public participation. The result is marginalized communities, and consequent degradation of the ecosystems on which these communities depend."
The Relation Between Income and Hunting in Tropical Forests: An Economic Experiment in the Field
(2006) Siren, Anders H.; Cárdenas, Juan-Camilo; Machoa, Jose D.
"Hunting in tropical forests is both a major cause of biodiversity loss and an important food source for millions of people. A question with important policy implications is how changes in income level affect how much people hunt. This study, which was carried out in an indigenous community in the Amazon, explored the relation between income and consumption of wild meat using an economic experiment in the form of a lottery, and involved the local people, not only as experimental subjects, but also in the interpretation of results. The results suggested that an increase in steady employment, rather than in income alone, may lead to the substitution of non-hunted foods for wild meat. The kind of social learning that participation in this type of economic experiment implies may potentially affect the way people manage resources in real life."
Resource Theft in Tropical Forest Communities: Implications for Non-timber Management, Livelihoods, and Conservation
(2011) Duchelle, Amy; Cronkleton, Peter; Kainer, Karen A.; Guanacoma, Gladys; Gezan, Salvador
"Increased devolution of forest ownership and management rights to local control has the potential to promote both conservation and livelihood development in remote tropical regions. Such shifts in property rights, however, can generate conflicts, particularly when combined with rapidly increasing values of forest resources. We explored the phenomenon of Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) theft in communities in Western Amazonia. Through interviews with 189 Brazil nut collectors in 12 communities in Bolivia and Brazil and participation in the 2006 and 2007 harvests, we quantified relative income derived from Brazil nuts, reported nut thefts, and nut collection and management practices. We found a much greater incidence of reported Brazil nut thefts in Pando, Bolivia than in the adjacent state of Acre, Brazil. Our analyses suggest that three factors may have affected nut thefts in the forest: (1) contrasts in the timing and process of formally recognizing property rights, (2) different historic settlement patterns, and (3) varying degrees of economic dependence on Brazil nuts. Threat of theft influenced Brazil nut harvest regimes, with potentially long-term implications for forest-based livelihoods, and management and conservation of Brazil nut-rich forests in Western Amazonia."
Richness and Abundance of Bats Captured at the Edge and Within a Forest Fragment in Acre, Brazil
(2010) Calouro, Armando Muniz; De Araújo Santos, Francisco Glauco; De Lima Faustino, Camila; De Souza, Simey Freitas; Moraes Lague, Brenda; Marciente, Rodrigo; Lemos Santos, Glauco Jonas; Cunha, Amanda Oliveira
"As a consequence of deforestation, forest fragmentation is a reality that is increasingly present in the western part of the state of Acre, Brazil. The objective of this study was to evaluate variations in the richness and abundance of bats in an urban forest fragment of approximately 150ha, which is located in Rio Branco (AC). Collections were performed in two places: two points that were 200m from the edge and two that were 20m from the edge. Mist-nets were opened four hours after sundown during three nights/month. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H’) and the Jaccard Similarity index (J) were used for comparative analysis. On 48 nights (November/2005 to July/2007), 85 individual bats of 15 species were captured, with greater richness and abundance of chiropters within the fragment. The similarity index of species was low (J=0.44), indicating habitat preference. The diversity index (H’=2.091) was similar to that of previous studies in the Amazon, especially in Brazil, with lower diversity at the edge (H’=1.864) than inside the fragment (H’=2.047). Carollia perspicillata (n=32) and Artibeus lituratus (n=13) were responsible for 57.6% of the total captured. The characteristics of the matrix and the adaptation of the bats to the mist-nets explained the observed values."
Science for the Poor: How One Woman Challenged Researchers, Ranchers, and Loggers in Amazonia
(2006) Shanley, Patricia
"In the lower Tocantins region of Brazil, one Amazonian woman questioned why scientists publish principally for elite audiences. Her experience suggests that the impact may be enhanced by also sharing data with people who depend upon forest goods. Having defended her family homestead near the city of Cameta against loggers in the late 1980s, Gloria Gaia became interested in strengthening the information base of other villagers so that they would not lose their forests for meager sums. She challenged scientists to defy norms such as extracting data without giving back to rural villagers and publishing primarily for the privileged. Working with researchers, she helped them to publish an illustrated manual of the ecology, economics, management, and cultural importance of key Amazonian forest species. With and without funds or a formal project, she traveled by foot and boat to remote villages to disseminate the book. Using data, stories, and song, she brought cautionary messages to villages about the impacts of logging on livelihoods. She also brought locally useful processing techniques regarding medicinal plants, fruit, and tree oils. Her holistic teachings challenged traditional forestry to include the management of fruits, fibers, and medicines. A new version of the book, requested by the government of Brazil, contains the contributions of 90 leading Brazilian and international scientists and local people. Gloria Gaia's story raises the questions: Who is science for and how can science reach disenfranchised populations? Lessons for scientists and practitioners from Gloria's story include: broadening the range of products from research to reach local people, complementing local ecological knowledge with scientific data, sharing precautionary data demonstrating trends, and involving women and marginalized people in the research and outreach process."
Sustainable Development and Challenging Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
(2008) Azevedo-Ramos, Claudia
"This article gives a broad overview of past and future challenges for development in the Brazilian Amazon, as well as recent achievements. In recognition of some similarities between the Amazon basin and the popular image of the American Far West, it borrows from the title of Sergio Leone's 1966 epic Western film, 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' to observe the phases of Amazon development."
Temporal Stability in Fishing Spots: Conservation and Co-management in Brazilian Artisanal Coastal Fisheries
(2006) Begossi, Alpina
"The management of small-scale artisanal fisheries in Brazil should be a priority because of their importance as a source of food for internal markets and their location in sites with high biodiversity, such as the Atlantic Forest coast. Fishing spots, territories, and sea tenure have been widely studied within artisanal fisheries, and, in this study, a fishing spot of this type may be a defended area or an area that imposes rules for users, making the exclusion of outsiders feasible, or even a place in which fishing occurs with some exclusivity. This analysis takes into account the importance of fishing areas for the conservation of artisanal fishing in Brazil and the relative temporal stability of these areas. In particular, examples of the use of the marine space on the coast of Brazil in areas such as Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Bahia States are presented. Fishing spots used by artisanal fishers were marked using a Global Positioning System (GPS). An informal division of the marine space and high temporal stability, often in the range of 10-30 yr, in the use of the fishing spots were found. For some fishing areas, information published in the 1960s provided a relevant comparison for the current use of the fishing spots at sea. Such information is very helpful for the management of artisanal fishing in Brazil because tourism has increased in some areas, recreational fishers have been fishing in marine spots used by artisanal fishers, and industrial fishers are spread over a wide range of the marine space in these coastal waters. This stability in the use of marine space among artisanal fishers plus local rules support the case for local co-management of artisanal fisheries. Reserving areas for artisanal fishers and understanding the behavior of other users are essential aspects for the management and conservation of artisanal fishing in Brazil."
Traditional Communities as 'Subjects of Rights' and the Commoditization of Knowledge in Brazil
(2015) Porro, Noemi M.; Neto, Joaquim Shiraishi; Porro, Roberto
"The International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 169 and the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) led signatory state-members to recognize traditional communities as subjects of rights, and no longer as objects of tutelage. However, their implementation may bring new challenges in states adopting market-based decision-making to rule social life. In pluri-ethnic societies in which power differentials are structurally embedded, traditional communities and companies exploring their resources and knowledge have been, historically, unequal and opposed parties. In processes of benefit sharing, these unequal social actors are wrongfully considered equally free subjects of rights in negotiating contracts in supposedly free markets. Erasing historical and structural differences, and assuming equality in an unequal world will only reproduce the inequality that CBD has aimed to address."
Tropical Deforestation and Habitat Fragmentation in the Amazon: Satellite Data from 1978 to 1988
(1993) Skole, David L.; Tucker, Compton
"Landsat satellite imagery covering the entire forested portion of the Brazilian Amazon Basin was used to measure, for 1978 and 1988, deforestation, fragmented forest, defined as areas less then 100 square kilometers surrounded by deforestation, and edge effects of kilometer into forest from adjacent areas of deforestation. Tropical deforestation increased from 78,000 square kilometers in 1978 to 230,000 square kilometers in 1988 while tropical forest habitat, severely affected with respect to biological diversity, increased from 208,000 to 588,000 square kilometers. Although this rate of deforestation is lower than previous estimates, the effect on biological diversity is greater."
Urban Forest and Rural Cities: Multi-sited Households, Consumption Patterns, and Forest Resources in Amazonia
(2008) Padoch, Christine; Brondizio, Eduardo; Costa, Sandra; Pinedo-Vasquez, Miguel; Sears, Robin R.; Siqueira, Andréa D.
"In much of the Amazon Basin, approximately 70% of the population lives in urban areas and urbanward migration continues. Based on data collected over more than a decade in two long-settled regions of Amazonia, we find that rural-urban migration in the region is an extended and complex process. Like recent rural-urban migrants worldwide, Amazonian migrants, although they may be counted as urban residents, are often not absent from rural areas but remain members of multi-sited households and continue to participate in rural-urban networks and in rural land-use decisions. Our research indicates that, despite their general poverty, these migrants have affected urban markets for both food and construction materials. We present two cases: that of acai palm fruit in the estuary of the Amazon and of cheap construction timbers in the Peruvian Amazon. We find that many new Amazonian rural-urban migrants have maintained some important rural patterns of both consumption and knowledge. Through their consumer behavior, they are affecting the areal extent of forests; in the two floodplain regions discussed, tree cover is increasing. We also find changes in forest composition, reflecting the persistence of rural consumption patterns in cities resulting in increased demand for and production of acai and cheap timber species."
The View from the Other Side
(1996) Diegues, Antonio Carlos
"As examples from Brazil show, EIAs often ignore the views of artisanal fishing communities."

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