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- Permanent Link:
- https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UFE0013408/00001
Material Information
- Title:
- Effectiveness of Extractive Reserves, Agro-Extractive Settlements, and Colonist Settlements in Southwestern Amazonia: An Economic and Land-Cover Comparison of Three Land Tenure Types in Acre, Brazil
- Creator:
- ARAUJO DE SOUZA, FRANCISCO KENNEDY ( Author, Primary )
- Copyright Date:
- 2008
Subjects
- Subjects / Keywords:
- Community forestry ( jstor )
Crops ( jstor )
Deforestation ( jstor )
Economics ( jstor )
Forests ( jstor )
Land cover ( jstor )
Land tenure ( jstor )
Land use ( jstor )
Rubber ( jstor )
Timber ( jstor )
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- University of Florida
- Holding Location:
- University of Florida
- Rights Management:
- Copyright Francisco Kennedy Araujo De Souza. Permission granted to University of Florida to digitize and display this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
- Embargo Date:
- 7/24/2006
- Resource Identifier:
- 496181277 ( OCLC )
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EFFECTIVENESS OF EXTRACTIVE RESERVES, AGRO-EXTRACTIVE
RESERVES AND COLONIST SETTLEMENTS IN SOUTHWESTERN AMAZONIA:
AN ECONOMIC AND LAND COVER COMPARISON OF THREE LAND TENURE
TYPES IN ACRE, BRAZIL
By
FRANCISCO KENNEDY ARAUjJO DE SOUZA
A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
2006
Copyright 2006
by
Francisco Kennedy Arauj o de Souza
To: my Apurinan indigenous people, my deceased grandmother Nadira Valuah, my
mother Mada, and my daughter Yara.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This thesis was the result of many supporters, co-workers, friends, and community
partnerships. First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the rubber tapper and
colonist families with whom I have collaboratively worked over the past eight years in
the State of Acre, Brazil. Drivers, researchers, and friends at the Federal University of
Acre, Centro dos Trabalhadores da Amaz8nia (CTA), Group for Agroforestry System
Research (PESACRE), and Acre government were fundamental to generate the results
presented in this thesis. Especially I thank my research assistants, Tatiana, Marcio,
Emilton, Luciano, and Dermerson.
I am also grateful for the financial support provided by many organizations. First, I
thank the Ford Foundation International Fellowship Program for its funding my graduate
studies at University of Florida. In Brazil Maria Luiza and Marcia, at the Fundagio
Carlos Chagas, were fundamental in supporting my first steps in the USA. I thank
Gregory Marino for his institutional support at the Institute of Intemnational Education in
New York. I sincerely express my appreciation to the Federal University of Acre for
permitting me to pursue my graduate study. I sincerely thank the Tropical Conservation
Development Program for its financial support during my last semester at the University
of Florida. I also extend special thanks to the Woods Hole Research Center for
supporting my fieldwork in Acre in 2004. Two government agencies in Acre, SEPROAF
and IMAC, contributed with transport and Landsat images.
My supervisory committee was fundamental in my effort to complete this graduate
course. First, I sincerely express my gratitude to my chair, Dr. Stephen Perz, for his
constant support, encouragement, patience, and friendship. I thank Dr. Charles Wood for
understanding my English limitation during my first semester at UF. Moreover Dr. Wood
was essential in advancing my statistical data analyses. I sincerely thank Dr. Marianne
Schmink for her friendship, patience, encouragement, and commitment in collaborating
with the Amazonian people. I am especially indebted to Dr. Schmink for her support in
one of the most critical moments of my life.
Innumerable friends and co-workers supported me before and during my studies,
fieldwork, and the writing process of my thesis. Valerio has been a unique friend who
since my first steps in Gainesville has supported me with friendship, encouragement,
ideas, and professional experience. Geraldo, like Marianne, became my kariuk~~~~kkkkk~~~~kkkk brother and
sister after their important support during my critical phase in Gainesville. I thank Foster
Brown, Daniel Nepstad, and Eduardo Brondizio for their letters supporting my
application to the Ford Foundation. I am grateful to Richard Wallace, Christiane
Ehringhaus, Christie Klimas, Joanna Tucker, Valerio, and Jeff for their support in
reading, editing, and suggesting ideas in my thesis. I express my thanks to Wendy Lin for
her support with my papers. I thank many other friends: Diogo, Rodrigo, Charle
Crisostomo, Silvia Brilhante, Nivia, Pedrio, Magna, Roger, Savio Maia, Edson Carvalho,
Lira, Hulk, Marilene, Sumaia, Fadel, Ronei, Elaine, Andrea, and Leonardo.
Finally, I express my gratitude to my parents and my brother and sisters for their
examples of vigor and humanity. I am indebted to Yara, my daughter, for putting up with
my long time far away from her.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
page
ACKNOWLEDGMENT S .............. .................... iv
LI ST OF T ABLE S ........._._.. ........ ............... ix...
LIST OF FIGURES .............. ...............x.....
AB STRAC T ................ .............. xi
1 INTRODUCTION ................. ...............1.......... ......
Research Objectives............... ...............
Overview of the Research Sites ................. ...............3............ ...
Theoretical Framework............... ...............7
M ethodology Summary .............. ......... .. ...... .. .......1
Study Significance: Local Research Needs on Land Tenure Analyses ................... ...11
Structure of the Thesis............... ...............12.
2 LAND USE MANAGEMENT AND LAND TENURE DIVERSITIES:
ECONOMIC BOOMS, State POLICIES, AND LAND RIGHTS INT ACRE............15
Introducti on ............... .. ... ..._. .... ...............15
Land Tenure Regimes in the Amazon Region ........___......... .. .. ..... .........._._....16
The State of Acre: History, Social Movements, and Land Tenure Diversity ............19
Geographic Context............... ...............19
Acre: Before the Ranchers................... ..... .................2
Agriculture Modernization: Large Cattle Ranchers, Rubber Tappers, and
C olonists ................ ........... .. ......... ... .......2
After the 1990s: No Economic Boom, but a Rubber Tapper Victory .................23
Acre: Social Movements, Community Land Tenures, and Forest-Based
Development Policies .............. .. .. ......... .. ... .......2
Neoextrativismo: A Long-Term and Systemic Approach ................ ...............27
Florestania: Citizenship Based on Regional Integration, Short-Term
Economic Growth, and Conservation .......__............ ._. ... ......_.._.. .....29
Community Land Tenure: An Emergent Issue for Assessment in Acre ....................31
Colonization Settlements (PC) .............. ...............33....
Extractive Reserves (Re sex) ................. .......... ......... ....... .....
Agro-extractive Settlements (PAE) ................. ...............36........... ....
The Study Sites ............... .. ..... .... ...... ........... .....................3
Peixoto Colonization Settlement: The Agrosilvopastoral Model ................... .....37
Porto Dias Agro-extractive Settlement: The Timber Forest Management
M odel ............... .. .......... .. ..... .. ... .......4
Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve: The Non-timber Forest Management
M odel .............. ...............42....
Conclusion ................ ...............45.................
3 METHODS AND TECHNIQUES FOR ECONOMIC AND REMOTE SENSING
ANALY SE S .............. ...............47....
Introducti on ............ ..... ._ ...............47....
The Socioeconomic Survey .............. ...............49....
Household Sampling .............. ...............50....
The Questionnaire .............. ...............51....
The Household Fieldwork ............ ......_ ...............52..
The Price Survey .............. .... .. ....... .. ... .. ....................5
Participatory Findings Assessment: Attempts for Calibration and Validation ...53
Land Cover Data Collection and Fieldwork ......____ ..... ... .__ ........._.......5
The Post-Survey: Data Processing and analysis............... ...............55
Household Economic Approach .....__.....___ ..........._ ............5
Economic Analysis ............ ..... ._ ...............58....
Land Cover Data Processing .............. ...............59....
Economic and Land Cover Integration............... ..............6
Conclusion ............ ..... ._ ...............62...
4 ECONOMIC AND LAND USE COMPARISON OF SMALLHOLDER LAND
TENURE MODELS INT THE STATE OF ACRE ................. .......... ...............64
Introducti on .................. ... ......... ...............64.......
Revising the Research Questions............... ...............6
Land Cover Distribution among Land Tenures ................ ................ ......... .67
Accuracy Assessment of Land Cover. ................ ............ ...................67
Comparing Land Cover among Land Tenures .............. ...............68....
Economic Analysis for Land Tenures in the State of Acre .............. ....................74
Gross Income ...._ ................. ...............74.......
General Cost Analysis ................ .......... ...............78......
Cost Analysis at Community Level ................. ...............82........... ...
Profitability Analysis............... .. ... .... .... ...............8
Integrating Land Cover and Economic Analyses for Understanding Land Tenure ...89
Conclusion ................ ...............96.................
5 CONCLUSIONS: DILEMMAS, IMPLICATIONS, AND FUTURE RESEARCH..99
Summarizing Key Findings ............ ....._ ............... 100.
Policy Implications ............_..........__ .. .. ..._ ... ..........10
Emergent Questions for Community Land Tenure in Acre............... ..................0
APPENDIX
A QUESTIONNAIRE USED INT THE CHICO MENDES EXTRACTIVE
RE SERVE ................. ...............107.............
B QUESTIONNAIRE USED INT THE PORTO DIAS AGRO-EXTRACTIVE
SETTLEMENT ............ ..... ._ ...............122...
C QUESTIONNAIRE USED INT THE PEIXOTO COLONIZATION
SETTLEMENT ................. ...............137................
D CIPEC TRAININ\G SAMPLE PROTOCOL ................. ............... ......... ...151
LIST OF REFERENCES ................. ...............155................
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ................. ...............162......... ......
LIST OF TABLES
Table pg
4-1. Accuracy assessment for 2004 supervised classification for the study sites in
Acre, Brazil. ............. ...............68.....
4-2: Land cover categories at household level, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil. ..................70
4-3. Descriptive statistics for land cover categories, by land tenure type, Acre, Brazil,
2004............... ...............72..
4-4. Descriptive statistics for annual income, by land tenure type, Acre, Brazil, 2004.....75
4-5. Descriptive statistics for annual cost categories, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil,
2004............... ...............79..
4-6. Annual mean for cost categories, by land tenure type, Acre, Brazil. 2004 ................83
4-7. Annual mean for profit for economic categories, by land tenure type, Acre, Brazil,
2004............... ...............86..
4-8. Site model at land cover types, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil, 2004. .........................91
4-9. Life cycle model at land cover types, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil, 2004. ...............92
4-10. Market integration model at land cover types, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil,
2004............... ...............93..
4-11. Investment model at land cover types, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil, 2004.............94
4-12. Assets model at land cover types, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil, 2004. ...................96
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure pg
1-1. State of Acre Brazil, identifying colonizazation, agro-extractive and conservation
areas. ............. ...............4.....
1-2. Deforestation in the study sites, Acre, Brazil. ............. ...............6.....
3-1. Diagram of land cover processing in the study area, Acre, Brazil. ............................60
Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School
of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts
EFFECTIVENESS OF EXTRACTIVE RESERVES, AGRO-EXTRACTIVE
RESERVES AND COLONIST SETTLEMENTS IN SOUTHWESTERN AMAZONIA:
AN ECONOMIC AND LAND COVER COMPARISON OF THREE LAND TENURE
TYPES IN ACRE, BRAZIL
By
Francisco Kennedy Arauj o de Souza
May 2006
Chair: Stephen G. Perz
Major Department: Latin American Studies
Linking economic and remote sensing techniques, a comparison of an extractive
reserve (Resex), an agro-extractive settlement (PAE), and a colonist settlement (PC) were
conducted in the state of Acre, Brazil. These land tenure categories were represented by
Chico Mendes Resex, Porto Dias PAE, and Peixoto PC respectively. The datasets used in
this research were constituted of three components. First, socioeconomic data were
gathered from 88 households in the three sites in 2004. Second, 442 GPS land cover
samples were collected in 2004 and 2005. Third, I used ancillary data and Landsat TM 5,
bands 1 through 5, scenes 67-001 and 67-002 for performing a supervised classification
at community and household level within the three land tenures.
Economic findings indicated that while forest management was the more important
activity among rubber tappers in the Resex and PAE, in Peixoto agrosilvopastoral
strategies had little economic importance. However, high costs were related to all
economic activities, especially timber forest management. Moreover, non-timber forest
products were more effective than timber forest management.
The land cover analysis indicated that extractive reserves and agro-extractive
settlements are most effective to address conservation. In comparison to PC lots that
showed a mean of 36% of deforestation in 2004, selected colocapies in the Resex and
PAE had a mean of 5% and 12% of deforestation respectively. However, while pasture
was the category that most contributed to deforestation in Peixoto and Porto Dias, crops
were the most prominent cause of forest clearing in the Chico Mendes Resex.
An integrated analysis of economic and land cover data produced two main results.
First, the multivariate models indicated that the establishment of extractive reserves and
agro-extractive reserves may be an efficient strategy to achieve conservation goals.
However, this policy should be followed by state enforcement initiatives because the life
cycle model addressed in this study suggested that more recent inhabitants tend to have a
high propensity to deforest. This tendency may be increased if investment in roads is
carried out.
While this study is an initial step in linking economic and land cover analysis at the
household level, it may provide insights for the formulation of conservation policies in
Acre where a comprehensive and innovative policy has been implemented since 1999.
Core components of that policy include community forest management and sustainable
land uses based on forest management and agrosilvopastoral production. Findings from
this thesis will hopefully help establish new strategies for consolidating extractive
reserves, agro-extractive reserves, and colonist settlements based on a new development
model in Amazon.
CHAPTER 1
INTTRODUCTION
Community land tenures and their land uses in Amazonia have been the obj ect of
intensive debate, with supporters (e.g., Schwartzman 1989, Allegretti 1990, Anderson
1990) and opponents (e.g., Homma 1989, Browder 1990). While public policies in this
region have focused on regional development models based on private control of large
tracts of land (e.g., ranchers, miners, and loggers), community land regimes have been
considered economically unattractive. By the same token, forest and sustainable land uses
have been criticized as an impediment to economic growth (Hecht 1985). In contrast with
these perspectives, over the past seven years, the government in the Brazilian state of
Acre has made efforts to consolidate a policy based on community based land tenure and
sustainable land use strategies.
In this context, it has been crucial to understand and empirically assess the role that
timber-forest management, non-timber forest management, and agrosilvopastoral systems
have in providing subsistence revenue and income accumulation, within extractivist,
agro-extractivist, and colonist communities. The potential effects of these land use
strategies for household livelihood systems and their implications for land cover change
are not well-understood. Kaimowitz and Angelsen (1998) argue that trained surveyors
and time-consuming data collection are a main constraint for farm-level analyses.
However, focusing on this type of study, some scholars (Carpentier et al. 2000, Tomich
et al. 1998) have observed that rising cash-incomes among small landholders in
Amazonia has generated changes in their behavior.
The economic efficiency of sustainable initiatives, then, is expected to promote
changes in natural resource use. Among smallholders in Acre I have observed that
increased income has contributed to the substitution of subsistence production by
manufactured products. Families have focused their interests on higher priced products to
meet their new needs. As a result, this commonly increases pressure on the forest to meet
these demands.
Although a broad range of issues are related to community land use and land cover
change in Amazonia, a question that emerged as central issue of this thesis is: which
community land tenure is most effective in balancing economic and forest conservation
goals? Almost 30 years after the most intense and violent phase of land conflicts in
Amazonia, this region has an opportunity to merge national and state policies into a
common agenda for addressing economic growth guided by environmental conservation.
This provides a rare opportunity to determine whether areas managed by communities,
such as extractive reserves, agro-extractive settlements and colonization settlements, can
be a potential development model for the Amazon region.
Research Objectives
The goal of this thesis is to respond to the need for an empirical assessment of
community land tenures as economic and environmental conservation strategies in the
Brazilian Amazon. This study responds to the emergent demand to understand the effects
non-timber and timber forest management as well as agrosilvopastoral strategies in
extractive reserves, agro-extractive settlements, and colonist settlements in the state of
Acre, Brazil. To address this issue, I used data sets from three community land tenure
categories located in this state. The research obj ectives were threefold: 1) to compare
economic and environmental conservation in three distinct land tenure categories
designed to achieve different policy obj ectives; 2) to economically evaluate non-timber
and timber forest products in terms of their cost and benefits; and 3) to identify factors
most important for forest clearing in three distinct land tenure types.
Overview of the Research Sites
The state of Acre is located in southwestern Amazonia and its 153,000 km2 Of area
was occupied by over 550,000 people in 1999 (Govemno do Estado do Acre 2000a). It
borders the Brazilian states of Rond8nia and Amazonas and the tri-national frontier
known since 1999 as the MAP region, which also includes the Bolivian State of Pando
and the Peruvian state of Madre de Dios (Figure 1-1). Its territory still has almost 90%
intact rainforest which contains diverse human and ecological mosaics with complex
interactions at local and regional levels (Governo do Estado do Acre 2000a, Silveira et al.
1997). However, there is the possibility that this landscape will be drastically altered over
the next few years. A coalition of Brazilian, Peruvian, and international organizations
such as Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is in the process of constructing and
paying the Pacific Highway which would be one of the most important roads for
transportation of commodities such as soybeans in South America. It may also increase
the probability of environmental degradation as a result of logging, soybean expansion,
and migratory movements (Carvalho et al. 2002).
The state of Acre, located between a degraded area (arc of deforestation) and a
region with less deforestation (Andean mountains), exhibits important community land
tenure diversity. Rubber tappers, indigenous people, and colonists, who have been the
priority social groups for governance policies implemented since 1999, control almost
44% of the territory (Figure 1-1) (Govemno do Estado do Acre 2000a). The future amount
of deforestation as well as potential negative effects of the Pacific Highway will be
strongly determined by land use decisions taking place in these communities.
Three study areas located in Acre's eastern region were selected for this research
based on three conditions: 1) they represented a community land tenure category:
extractive reserve, agro-extractive settlements, and colonist settlements; 2) their
inhabitants are addressing sustainable land uses based on timber management, non-timber
forest management, or agrosilpastoral initiatives; and 3) they reflect public policies
initiatives for sustainable land use. As a result of these criteria three land tenure types
were selected.
The Chico Mendes Reserve, with almost one million hectares, was the largest
extractive reserve in Brazil until 2004. It is sub-divided into 45 rubber estates (seringais)
AMAZONAS
-RQNDONIA
N Mad eE d~eUDios
I~ Pacific Highway
AgPR) a ro-exrctv stleet
Pandoacie etlmet
100 0 100 Miles \(BOLIVIA) I Conservation areas
colonization Settlements
Figure 1-1. State of Acre Brazil, identifying colonizazation, agro-extractive and
conservation areas.
and each has individual rubber tapper landholdings (colocapi~es). Three seringais, Sho
Pedro, Palmari, and Floresta (Figure 1-2, A), were selected. In this area, a coalition of
organizations led by state government agencies have sought to amplify the range of non-
timber forest products explored by local residents over the past 7 years. The National
Center for the Sustainable Development of Traditional Populations (CNPT), a bureau
under supervision of the Brazilian Institute for Environmental and Renewable Natural
Resources (IBAMA), is the governmental agency responsible for Resex' administration
in collaboration with rubber tapper associations.
Although the Porto Dias Agro-extractive Settlement' s 22,000 hectares are occupied
predominantly by rubber tapper families, it is administrated by the Brazilian Agency for
Agrarian Reform (INTCRA). There is no evident geographic division of seringais in this
area. Rubber tapper landholdings are grouped into three associations. The Porto Dias
Rubber Tapper Association area (Figure 1-2, B) was selected for sampling. This area is
one of the most important initiatives for timber management in Acre and has been
supported by a pool of organizations led by the Center for Amazonian Workers (CTA) to
consolidate this activity as an economic alternative for rubber tappers.
The third area is the Peixoto Colonization Settlement, the largest and oldest human
settlement area established by INTCRA at the end of the 1970s (Figure 1-2, C). As with
other colonist areas in the Amazonia, agriculture and cattle are the main land use
strategies in Peixoto. However, innovative experiments emerged at the end of the 1990s
to address environmental degradation and economic inefficiency. Since 1994, the Group
for Agroforestry System Research (PESACRE), a local NGO, has collaborated with
members of the Grupo Novo Ideal rural association, a community organization located in
d re:r*~
:i:
r d i-'
* ~' a
~-r~I
~p~ii
Peixoto, to combine agriculture, livestock, agroforestry, and forest management into an
integrated agrosilvopastoral system. This community is the colonist sample for this
thesis.
Deforestation 2004
Water
Selected area
Land tenure limited
Chico Mendes Resex
Porto Dias PAE
Peixoto PC
(A)
(B)
(C)
Figure 1-2. Deforestation in the study sites, Acre, Brazil.
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical foundation of this work is guided by three bodies of literature. I
draw on political ecology as a framework to integrate land reform in the Amazonia region
and community land uses strategies as a dynamic process taking place at multiple scales.
This study seeks to understand local land use practices in the Amazon region as a result
of events established in larger, extra-local political and economic settings (Peet and Watts
1996, Bryant and Bailey 1997). Linking political, economic, and cultural perspectives,
this framework attempts to address a range of factors affecting use of natural resources as
related to local, national, and global political economies and ecosystems (Blaikie and
Brookfield 1987, Schmink and Wood 1987). Economic booms in Amazonia were a key
aspect to take into consideration in this perspective. As a result of international demand,
national and regional policies encouraged human migration, landownership regimes, and
environmental depletion. These processes are examples of how underlying factors and
political economies at multiple levels may affect socioeconomic and political dynamics at
the community level in Amazonian region.
Political ecology also constitutes a powerful framework for integrating natural and
social dynamics (Peterson 2000). This context is fundamental for understanding how
community land tenure regimes in Amazonia were a result of underlying social, cultural,
environmental, economic, and political factors from a local to global scale. In the case of
Acre under the Forest Government, political processes yielded land tenure categories
specially designed to produce more favorable economic as well as environmental
outcomes via more sustainable land use practices. Consequently, political ecology
provides a basis for understanding the historical context and political foundations for the
land tenure categories on which I focus in this thesis.
However, to empirically assess economic and conservation effectiveness of land
use strategies in different communities, I decided to add two other bodies of literature:
household economic analysis of land use management via a livelihoods approach; and
explanations at various scales for land cover change.
Economic growth based on sustainable land use has commonly been held up as a
blueprint for both conservation and human wellbeing. However, this research accepts
Wollenberg et al. (2001)' s view that those income-generating activities may alter the
social context, conservation behavior, and livelihood of local communities. This study
attempts to comprehend rural smallholders as a complex of diverse livelihood activities
(Ellis 2000). To explore this perspective for the land tenure categories selected in this
work, two levels of analysis were conducted. First, the sustainable land uses practiced in
the selected communities, have been under debate for over 30 years. Researchers of land
use and forest economics in the 1980s and 1990s (Godoy et al. 1993, Peters et al. 1989,
Pinedo-Vasquez et al. 1990, Nepstad and Schwartzman 1992, Padoch and Jong 1989)
identified potential challenges and opportunities for these strategies. Second, in addition
to their institutional, socio-cultural, and economic diversities, inhabitants of extractive
reserves, agro-extractive settlements, and colonist settlements are typified by the diversity
of their livelihood systems. To achieve an economic and land use analysis, understanding
the livelihood of each land tenure category emerged as a key component to evaluate the
effectiveness of community-based development in Amazonia.
Although household farming, as argued by Ellis (2000), attempts to diversify the
range of family activities as a strategy for maintaining their wellbeing, in the Amazon
this decision may be also influenced by cultural behavior (Rego 1999). Household
diversity, in this context, is problematic for empirical economic and social analysis.
Hildebrand and Schmink (2004) argue that economic, social, and institutional factors in
each livelihood system affect household economics, which have multiples consequences
for land use allocation.
This study uses livelihood analysis to understand how land cover and economic
dynamics are affected by different land use regimes. Based on differences in livelihood
strategies among land tenure types, the instruments utilized during the fieldwork
(questionnaire, participatory mapping, participant observation etc) were adapted to each
community. The economic findings discussed in this thesis were summarized in terms of
inputs and outputs; however, for visualizing the household diversity in their livelihood
systems, those findings were aggregated by categories of land use (agriculture, livestock,
forest management) that represent spatial land allocation (agriculture area, pasture, and
forest), and are the result of allocation of available resources (labor, resources, and
capital).
The third body of literature on which I draw is that addressing the causes and
consequences of land use and land cover changes at multiple scales. Theories focusing on
Amazonian deforestation have been dominated by neoclassical economics and political
ecology analyses; other studies have pointed to a combination of proximate causes and
underlying drivers in a geographical and historical context (Geist and Lambin 2002).
Yet, at the local level, individual and social responses to land cover dynamics are
affected by economic change led by institutional factors, in which new land use strategies
are created by market and policies increasingly affected by regional and global factors
(Lambin et al. 2001). Land cover and land use change, while affected by global and
regional drivers, is particularly influenced by individual micro-economic decision taking
place at community level (Anselin 2001). Mertens et al. (2000) argued that integration of
household survey and remote sensing information are an appropriate strategy to
empirically understand the linkages and feedbacks occurring at micro and regional levels.
Methodology Summary
This research involved multidisciplinary inquiry at the three sites and multiple data
collection methodologies including ground truthing for classification of land cover
classes, and quantitative analyses linking economic outcomes and forest cover dynamics
at household level. Principal research methods included semi-structured interviews,
participant observation, vegetation sampling, and remote sensing analysis.
The economic survey at household level was carried out in 2004. I conducted
interviews with 88 households in three land tenures located in Acre's southeast region. In
order to evaluate the economic and land cover effects of sustainable land use strategies
implemented by families, such as forest management and agroforestry systems, the
sample was distributed as follows. In the Chico Mendes Resex I selected 34 families
involved in management of various non-timber forest products. In the Porto Dias agro-
extractive settlement the sample was 27 households. Peixoto colonization settlement was
the third area, and had 27 small farmers selected. The set of interviews with those
families was conducted from May through August of 2004 in collaboration with CTA,
PESACRE, and governmental agencies.
The land cover sampling took place during two time periods. In 2004 when I
carried out the household surveys, I also collected 345 land cover GPS points in the
selected household areas with four research assistants. Inaccuracy and confusion of the
classification results in bamboo areas required additional ground-truthing in the summer
of 2005 during which 97 additional land cover samples were gathered. These data were
then utilized to perform a supervised classification using Landsat images scenes 67-001
and 67-002 of 2004.
Study Significance: Local Research Needs on Land Tenure Analyses
This research is important for four main reasons. First, it provides a comparison of
economic and land cover outcomes across multiple land tenure categories. Second, it will
be crucial for implementation of policies in Amazonia, specifically in Acre where
community land regimes are a foundation for alternative development based on
sustainable land uses. Third, although land use and land cover change literature in the
1980-1990s focused on Amazonia, there is a lack of comparisons assessing the economic
and conservation effectiveness of community initiatives based on timber and non-timber
forest management, and agrosilvopastoral systems. Fourth, this study will contribute to
the land use and land cover change literature by linking socioeconomic and satellite data
analysis at household level.
The first implication may be the most important for local stakeholders in Acre.
Although the state government has been guided by efforts to promote forest based
development since 1999, it has altered its policy approach over time. Policymakers have
concentrated their efforts on establishing economic alternatives for community areas of
the Rio Acre watershed, a region with social, cultural, and ecological specificities, in
which this study was conducted. In this territory, the governmental initiatives have
addressed a combination of timber and non-timber forest management, agroforestry
systems, as well as agriculture and cattle ranching zones as a strategy to increase the local
welfare while emphasizing environmental conservation. Over the next years, these
community models will likely be replicated in other areas of the state (i.e. the Jurua and
Purus regions) which accounted for over 65% of the intact forests in the State in 1999.
However, there is a lack of empirical studies addressing community land use.
During various moments in Acre, policymakers and social movements have called for
research programs assessing these emergent issues. Cross comparison among community
land use strategies should show whether the forest-based initiatives addressed are
effectively balancing economic growth and conservation goals. Specifically this type of
research will demonstrate the land cover and economic effects of state policy planning
within extractive reserves, agro-extractive settlements, and colonist settlements.
Structure of the Thesis
This thesis is organized in five chapters. Chapter 2 gives an overview of the
history, context, and status of community-based development in Amazonia and
specifically in the state of Acre. It introduces how economic booms, human migration,
economic processes, and policy drivers affected land ownership and resource use at a
regional scale. The chapter attempts to demonstrate that while community land tenure
regimes were a result of regional and national drivers, they were also produced by
political and economic events conducted at global scale. Based on a political ecology
perspective, this chapter argues that natural resource appropriation in Amazonia,
including land, has been determined by social confrontations and alliances at multiple
levels. While the 1970s included the most crucial rupture in the Amazonian economic
system, during which a jump from forest-based development to an agricultural economy
took place, this period was also notable for the establishment of innovative land reform
led by rubber tapper movements. In the 1980s and 1990s new land tenure categories
emerged as a result of social conflicts, economic changes, and policy implementation.
They were also characterized by their institutional and social differences, as well as the
remarkable cultural distinction of their inhabitants.
Chapter 2 also focuses on the study area and discusses why the State of Acre may
be considered a space of rare opportunity to assess the effectiveness of community land
tenure strategies based on sustainable land use initiatives. The forest government efforts
to build up an innovative regional model of public policy are also discussed in this
chapter. The maj or obj ective of this chapter is to clarify the multiple land use strategies
conducted by rural communities in this region and how their land rights were established
over time. The historical, cultural, and socioeconomic difference among these
populations is addressed via a comparative analysis. A brief background of the study
areas, which include the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, the Porto Dias Agro-
extractive Reserve, and the Peixoto Colonization Settlement, is provided.
Chapter 3 concentrates on the research design, field surveys, and remote sensing
techniques as well as the economic framework utilized to perform the data analysis. This
discussion addresses three key aspects. First, it shows how remote sensing and household
surveys are combined for economic analysis of resource management, particularly land
cover change. Second, it describes the research design used in this study, in terms of
economic and land cover comparisons between the three land tenure categories. Last but
not least, it emphasizes the research innovation achieved in this study by using satellite
and socioeconomic data at a household level to compare multiple land tenure types in
terms of their land uses.
Additionally, Chapter 3 discusses how the economic and land cover fieldwork was
carried out. This chapter a) summarizes how the communities and households were
selected; b) discusses the spatial and socioeconomic techniques undertaken through the
survey; and c) reviews the methodological approach for the economic and land cover data
analyses. This is followed by a discussion of the participatory tools used, prior to
economic analysis, to define indicators, field techniques, and sampling.
Chapters 4 and 5 detail the results of this study and compare the three community-
based strategies. The economic outcomes at a household level are linked to their
associated costs, and I evaluate their environmental performance for addressing forest-
conservation. The analysis is divided into three parts. The first discusses the land cover
distribution across the three land tenure categories. The second focuses on economic
analysis of costs and revenue to identify the most profitable land tenure and livelihood
activity. Finally, the third part presents five multivariate regression models to evaluate the
effects of economic and non-economic variables on deforestation among smallholders of
the study sites.
CHAPTER 2
LAND USE MANAGEMENT AND LAND TENURE DIVERSITIES: ECONOMIC
BOOMS, STATE POLICIES, AND LAND RIGHTS IN ACRE
Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to summarize different land-tenure types in the State
of Acre and differentiate the land use strategies associated with each type. This
discussion starts by examining the larger context in which land tenure regimes developed
in the Amazon region, in particular, how the economic booms affected human migratory
movement, livelihoods of rubber tapper populations, and by extension, land rights.
Additionally, it introduces a few details of the policy-land tenure regime interface that
took place during three maj or landmark periods in Acre's history: the rubber booms
(1870-1950), the era of cattle expansion (1970-1980s), and the post-victory of the rubber
tappers' movement (1990s to today). This discussion introduces the main categories of
land tenure in Acre and points out central differences in their attempts to address
economic and conservation goals. An overview of the study sites and description of their
significance will also be provided.
In contrast with many other studies in which an economic-environmental tradeoff
analysis is undertaken, this chapter emphasizes why public policies are a key driver for
land cover and land use change in Amazonia via a comparison of distinct land tenure
types. This chapter concentrates on forest policy approaches implemented in Acre since
1999 in which rubber tappers and rural communities have been a key social actor. In
addition, this chapter introduces the overall discussion of the circumstances in which
different land tenure categories and resource management strategies were established.
Pointing out diverse contexts on how land tenure types emerged in Acre and their
remarkable dissimilarities, I argue that extractive reserves, agro-extractive settlement, and
colonist settlement proj ects played an important role in achieving an alternative
development model.
To begin the comparative analysis of different land tenure regimes in this state, this
chapter offers an overview of the historical and regional context in which land tenure
regimes are situated. The discussion is organized as follows. First, a summary of the
economic boom periods that took place in Amaz8nia will be provided. Second, the
historical and geographical context in which community tenures emerged in the state of
Acre will be identified. This discussion focuses on two issues: 1) the struggle for land
reform from the late 1970s to early 1990s; and 2) the government policies implemented
in Acre since 1999 related to land tenure communities. Third, differences among
extractive reserves, agro-extractive settlements, and colonist settlements will be
discussed. This section will also include a description of the three study sites, each
representing one of these land tenure types.
Land Tenure Regimes in the Amazon Region
Land rights and land tenure in the Amazon have historically been influenced by
complex connections among agents at global, national, and local scales. Simmons (2004)
emphasizes that while these dynamics have been defined by multiple agents, such as
indigenous people, miners, loggers, ranchers, and small farmers, a political-economic
framework for land-tenure in the Amazon requires an understanding of past processes. As
a part of this discussion, this section offers an historical review of development policies
of Amazonia and their implications for land distribution and land tenure implementation.
Specifically it focuses on the cycles of economic booms that took place in this region
from the 19th century to the late 1980s. Three historical moments illustrate the interface
between economic events and land tenure regimes.
The first phase, from 1870s though the 1950s, was the rubber boomer period which
took place in Amazonia in the middle 19th century and again in the 1940s and early
1950s. Demand from pneumatic tire factories in Europe and the U.S. motivated the
Brazilian government to move thousands of rural workers from the northeast region to
the north of Brazil to meet labor demand. The arrival of northeastern people in Acre was
an important starting point for establishment of the local society. Rubber tappers emerged
in this period as a social group forced to depend on forest resources for their subsistence.
The rubber booms, however, also fostered crucial socioeconomic changes in this
region. Thousands of indigenous people died or were expelled from their land by large
rubber estate owners (seringalista~s), the new landowners in the Amazon region (Melatti
1993). While during the first rubber boom (1870-1910) the economy was based on the
semi-slavery aviamnento system (Weinstein 1983), during the second boom (1940-1950)
the state assumed economic and social control of the rubber-based economy (Martinello
1988).
During a brief rubber boom in the Second World War when Malaysian areas were
controlled by the Japanese military, blocking America' s access to rubber, the category of
autonomous rubber tappers2 became more evident (Oliveira 1985, Bakx 1988). In spite its
i The semi-slavery aviamento system was a coalition of seringalistas, Brazilian state, and national and
international companies to implement the rubber economy in the 19th century in the Amazon region.
2 Autonomous rubber tappers refer to circumstance of relative freedom of rubber tappers in managing their
colocapaes. This situation was launched in the late 1910s, when external interference over the resources in
the colocagaes from state or seringalista became reduced. As a result, agriculture and livestock emerged as
new activities worked by rubber tappers for their subsistence.
shortness, the four years (1942-1945) of rubber demand stimulated some economic
recovery. A new migratory movement was then stimulated by the Brazilian government
to Amazonia, particularly to its Western region, the area with the largest population of
rubber trees.
The second phase, from the 1960s through 1970s came with the decline of
international demand for Amazonian rubber. The forest economy, which had been
represented by the rubber tree, was substituted by a new development model based on
cattle and crops. This economic change was followed by large-scale state investments in
infrastructure such as roads, dams, and mines, and subsidy programs to modernize the
Amazonian economy (Cardoso and Miidler 1977). On the other hand, at a micro-scale, the
land tenure regimes were also transformed from seringais to large cattle ranches. At the
same time, rubber tappers engaged in defending their landholdings (colocapi~es), even as
some rubber tappers migrated to urban areas.
The fall in the price of rubber resulted in the bankruptcy of many seringalista~s and
contributed to important changes in the rubber tapper' s livelihood system. As a result of
more flexible social control, hundreds of rubber tappers became more independent and
were able to introduce new economic activities into their land use strategies such as slash
and burn agriculture, livestock, hunting, and harvesting of forest products. It is notable,
then, that the rubber tappers' relative freedom fundamentally altered their level of
3 This strategy was addressed by Brazilian government to face the lack of a labor force to exploit rubber
trees. State advertising was carried out to stimulate a new migratory movement of people from the
Northwest, this time called rubber soldiers (soldados da borracha), to the Amazon. Oliveira (1985) noted
that over 50,000 migrants from that poor Brazilian region were engaged on the rubber economy in Acre's
jungle. Yet, as pointed out by Sobrinho (1992), different from previous cycles, the rubber economic system
was controlled by the state which monopolized the commercialization process and the control of rubber
tappers in the seringais.
subsistence, even as they continued to focus on rubber as their main cash income activity
(Oliveira 1985).
These changes prompted rubber tappers to mobilize to defend their land rights
Consciousness-rai sing, facilitated by worker unions, was a key element influencing the
land struggle that took place through an economic transition from forest-based land use to
cattle ranching launched in the 1960s. In this context, the struggle for land of during this
period was characterized by social coalitions between workers and regional organizations
in order to pressure the State for land reform in the region.
Land tenure policies implemented during this period were complicated by the
governmental plan to integrate the Amazon by roads to other Brazilian territories. Human
migration was encouraged though colonization settlements which were established in
areas surrounding regional highways, such as Transamaz8nica, Cuiaba-Santarem, Belem-
Brasilia, and Rio Branco-Brasilia. As a result, land conflicts between rubber tappers,
colonists, and large cattle ranchers became more visible in Amazonia. However, intensity
of land conflicts varied among the Amazonian states as a consequence of local policies,
social coalitions, and the influence of national policies. In the following section I will
focus on the case of Acre. In particular, I will concentrate on the importance of social
movement, led by rubber tappers, to foster land reforms.
The State of Acre: History, Social Movements, and Land Tenure Diversity
Geographic Context
Acre's 153,000 km2 is occupied by over 550,000 people (Governo do Estado do
Acre 2000a) and is bordered by the Brazilian states of Rond8nia and Amazonas and by a
trans-national frontier constituted by the Bolivian state of Pando, and the Peruvian state
of Madre de Dios (Figure 1-1). Its territory is still constituted by almost 90% intact
rainforest with diverse human and ecological mosaics with complex interactions at local
and regional levels. Although this state has been cited as a rich region of palms (Daly and
Silveira 2001) and important diversity of other species of plants, habitats, and soil
(Governo do Estado do Acre 2000b), due to the enormous lack of scientific knowledge of
its ecology, the degree of its biodiversity is likely underestimated (MMA 2001a, Silveira
et. al 1997).
Besides its biological diversity, approximately 44% of its territory is occupied by
smallholders such as extractivist inhabitants, indigenous people, and colonists (Governo
do Estado do Acre 2000a, Figure 1-2) who have implemented a range of land use
strategies such as timber and non-timber forest management, annual and perennial crops,
and cattle and other livestock. In 1996, less than 30% of Acre's total deforestation was
located within community areas.4 Therefore, Acre's future conservation will be affected
by land use decisions of these communities.
Community land tenure regimes in Acre were the result of intensive social conflicts
that took place in the past. Social movements and rubber tapper strategies, such as the
"empate movements" were fundamental to influence land reforms in this State. These
rural workers assisted by various organizations from local to international level
contributed to making this region renowned worldwide in the 1980s. In order to provide
SThis assessment was performed using data available through the MacapB Seminar, a meeting organized by
the Brazilian government in 1999, in which Brazilian hotspots for conservation and sustainable uses were
identified. I utilized ArcView to process raster and rector files and Erdas Imagine to merge raster and
rector files. I then calculated deforestation within each land tenure type (see MMA 2001 for details about
the data).
5 The enyate movements were a form of collective resistance conducted by rubber tappers against
deforestation. The name was conceived based on the Portuguese word "enyatar" (to prevent). These
actions were usually carried out in the summer season, the moment in which large cattle ranchers cut the
forest. During these initiatives rubber tapper leaders firstly tried to convince farm laborers to desist cutting
down the forest. If they were not successful to stop the deforestation, then they organized themselves in line
(children, women, and men) to protect the forest.
an overall context in which those community land tenures were created, in the following
section I move to Acre's history. Specifically I will focus on how social movements
emerged and demanded land reform and the establishment of new categories of land
tenure types such as extractive reserves (Resex) and agro-extractive settlements (PAE).
This discussion will be divided into three parts. First, I summarize the period prior to
cattle raising in the 1970s. Second, I discuss the period of large-scale cattle ranching and
land conflicts from the 1970s to the 1980s. Third, I focus on the rubber tapper victory in
the 1990s when extractive reserves and agro-extractives settlements were created.
Acre: Before the Ranchers
The end of the rubber boom in 1945 contributed to the collapse of the Acrean
economy, and also resulted in the emergence of new and important social actors. Oliveira
(1985) and ELI (1994) point out that the crisis of rubber had two related consequences
for land property regimes in Acre. On the one hand, some of the seringalista~s went
bankrupt and abandoned their rubber estates. On the other hand, rubber tappers reacted
differently to this collapse, though in diverse ways.
One group of rubber tappers, like some seringalista~s, grew discouraged with rubber
tapping and migrated to urban areas in Acre or to other Brazilian states. Another large
number of rubber tappers remained under the seringalista~s' oppressive control that used
jagngos (mercenaries) to prohibit agriculture and other subsistence activities in the
colocapies (landholdings). Within these areas, then, no change was observed in terms of
social control, landownership, and rubber tappers' livelihood. And third, a more
significant transformation, which has also been noted by Bakx (1988), took place among
rubber tappers, who, as a consequence of the abandonment of rubber estates by
seringalista~s, were able to manage their land and their resources according to their
particular interests.
These socioeconomic changes took place among the third group of rubber tappers
contributed to the establishment of new land use strategies within seringais while also
providing the social context for the emergence of a new category of rubber tapper.
Conscious of their land rights, for the first time since their arrival in this territory, they
organized themselves against ranchers, the state, and the judicial system to demand rights
to their lands. This period was an important landmark in Acre's history in which an
economic rupture emerged while also bringing intensive land conflicts.
Agriculture Modernization: Large Cattle Ranchers, Rubber Tappers, and Colonists
The period from the 1970s through the 1990s was the most crucial phase of Acre' s
history in terms of social conflicts, land tenure regimes, policies, and economic strategies.
These striking social and political changes and their implications for development and
land use have been noted by various scholars (e.g., Oliveira 1985, Esteves 1999, and
Paula 2003) as the moment of substitution of forestry harvesting by agriculture and
pasture economies. This time period was marked by the polarization between forest
resource use by rubber tapper communities and traditional models based on crops and
cattle expansion.
The crops and cattle economic model implemented in Acre in the early 1970s was
led by the Wanderley Dantas. At that moment the governmental slogan was to "produce
in Acre, invest in Acre, and export via the Pacific" (Silva 1990) which meant to integrate
this state into the emergent Brazilian agribusiness economy. Based on cattle, a ranching
coalition constituted by local and national politicians, the board of judges, state police,
and large ranchers emerged to establish a new land tenure policy to benefit large
landowners.6
In terms of the ownership configuration of Acre' s territory, this period represented
a transition from seringais to large scale cattle farms. In addition, this phase was
characterized by social polarization between traditional populations (rubber tappers and
indigenous people) and large cattle ranchers. The str-uggle became more intense when the
"paulista~s", which included ranchers from the South, Central and Southwest of Brazil,
arrived in Acrean territory and encountered a large resident population of posseiros, or
autonomous seringueiros, that acquired their rights over the rubber estates when they
were abandoned by seringalistas. The "empate movement" was the main strategy utilized
by rubber tappers to prevent deforestation as well as to demand their land rights.
After the 1990s: No Economic Boom, but a Rubber Tapper Victory
The transition from forest-based production to a cattle ranching and land
speculation economy was followed by a violent str-uggle within Acre. Sobrinho (1992)
points out that from 1975 through 1988 in Brasileia and Xapuri7 400 rubber tappers were
imprisoned and 40 others killed or tortured. Both rubber tappers and ranchers organized
themselves as social movements. In mid-1985, large cattle ranchers created the 'Rural
Democratic Union (UDR)' with two main goals: 1) to influence national policies in the
interests of agri-business, for instance, by strengthening subsidies, credit, and road
6 MCSquita (1977) estimated that from 1971 through 1975 over five million hectares, that is, almost one
third of Acre's territory, were transferred to new owners. Commonly, emphasizes this author, the land was
occupied by rubber tappers who were forced to migrate to urban poor areas.
SXapuri and Brasil~ia are two municipalities located in South Acre region. Since the economic transition to
cattle ranching in the 1970s they became one the most important areas of both land conflicts and rubber-
tappers movement against roads and deforestation (see FASE 1989 and Allegretti 1989).
building; 2) to lead legal and many times violent efforts against smallholders, untitled
occupants, and indigenous people in Amazonia.
As a response, at the end of 1985, rubber-tappers organized their first national
meeting in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. This event was supported by the National
Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (INTESC), the Brazilian Department of Culture, and
Oxfam, an international organization. At that moment, they created the National Rubber
Tappers' Council (CNS). With national and international supporters they also advocated
the creation of Extractive Reserves (Resex) as a pioneering land-reform measure within
Amazonia intended to maintain its natural resources and also providing rubber tappers
with long-term rights to land. Further strengthening this movement, by late 1988,
indigenous people, rubber tappers, and ribeirinhos j oined their voices in one of the
strongest collective actions in the Amazon. In Acre they built a coalition under the name
of the 'Forest Peoples Alliance'.
The large ranchers reaction, however, was extremely violent with the shooting of
Chico Mendes, one the most prominent rubber tapper leaders in Amazonia, in the late
1988. Although the 1980s period was one the most violent periods of Acre' s history, it
also created an opportunity for new leaders who argued for a new development plan
based on forest use and smallholders' land rights.
As a consequence, land tenure policies took their first steps toward land reforms. In
1989 the Brazilian government created four agro-extractive reserves in areas with
intensive land-conflicts in the State of Acre: Sho Luiz do Remanso, Santa Quiteria,
Macaui, and Cachoeira. In 1990, the Alto Jurua Extractive Reserve was established, the
first one in Amazonia, with more than 506,000 hectares. The same year, the Chico
Mendes Reserve, the largest Brazilian extractive reserve until 2004 with almost 1
million hectares, was formed.
Chico Mendes' murder led to the creation of seven other extractive reserves in five
Brazilian states by 1992. Chico Mendes' legacy was revitalized in 1998, when the
Workers Party won Acre's gubernatorial election, establishing a bridge among policy,
social movements, and agents managing diverse land tenures. In the following section I
discuss the innovative public policies implemented in the State of Acre since 1999.
Specifically I focus on the effects of governmental initiatives for community land
tenures.
Acre: Social Movements, Community Land Tenures, and Forest-Based
Development Policies
In this section I will summarize recent public policies implemented in Acre, which
have attempted to establish a forest-based development model, and their implication for
land tenure regimes. Particularly, I will concentrate on the efforts of the Acre government
to foster alternative policies in community land tenures areas since 1999.
The triumph of the forest-based development led by Jorge Viana, a forester who
worked as a technical adviser for rural communities in the 1980s, led to the establishment
of a development model based on sustainable use of natural resources. The "forest
government" slogan became a key concept which suggests the Acre territory could be
developed based on land tenure rights and land uses strategies of extractivists, colonists,
and indigenous people.
In addition to the fact that many of these policymakers worked closely with local
communities over the past 10 years, two factors help explain why the forest government
SThe largest Brazilian extractive reserve is the Verde para Sempre with 1.3 million hectare. It was created
in 2004 and is located in the State of Para.
concentrated much of its attention on the spatial distribution of land tenure regimes. First,
although the legal status of a large portion of land was not precisely known, the type of
landowners and their location and land use practices were recognized in Acre's territory.
Second, different from the previous governor, Viana attempted to implement a policy
taking into consideration the economic vocation of the population of each land tenure
category. Thus, economic and ecological zoning (ZEE)9 emerged as a strategic
instrument for state planning, territorial management, and policy implementation.
Based on the ZEE' s results, four maj or categories of land tenures types were
identified in the state territory (Figure 1-2). The first one, covering almost 3 5% of the
territory, is characterized by colonization settlements, agro-extractive settlements,
extractive reserves, and indigenous reserves. The second accounts for approximately 15%
of Acre' s area and is comprised of national and state parks, and other conservation areas.
Third, areas under INTCRA' s control, which should be utilized for human settlements,
correspond to approximately 7% of the state' s area. Lastly, the largest area of the state is
in the hands of private landowners (mainly large cattle ranchers) who control almost four
million hectares or 26% of Acre' s territory. There is, however, a large extent of land
without any immediate land tenure discrimination, covering over 22% of the territory.
Although these community land tenures have been a key to the forest government,
its policies have been altered from Viana' s first term of office (1999-2002) to the second
(2003-2006). Based on my personal experiences speaking with diverse local stakeholders,
I have identified four maj or differences between the first and the second of Viana' s terms
of office which could affect economic and land cover dynamics within land tenure
9 The ZEE is an important policy instrument for territorial management in which the state integrates
economic, social, and environmental studies as elements for subsidizing society's decisions.
regimes in Acre. First, while the first term of office emphasized non-timber forest
strategies, during the second mandate, timber management has been a priority. Second,
through 1999-2002 the government attempted to establish a forest model based on a
diversity of land use strategies addressed by forest inhabitants (rubber tappers, indigenous
and colonist). Third, the relationship between state and federal government was altered
when Luis Inacio Lula da Silva was elected president of Brazil in 2003. Since this period
considerable infra-structure investments have been carried out in Acre to integrate it to
the Peruvian region. These initiatives may have unknown effects for forest conservation
and community land tenures.
Lastly, as policymakers have implemented a model oriented by market demands
(e.g., timber and cattle) since 2003, strategies for increasing the competitiveness of forest
strategies have become a key economic priority in the second term. During this period,
macro-investments (e.g., road building, energy, and logging company incentives) were
more encouraged than community-based initiatives (e.g., cooperatives and rural
association subsidies). Overall, while the first mandate was based on the neoextrativismo
approach, the current term of office has been called florestania. In the following section I
will summarize each of these approaches.
Neoextrativismo: A Long-Term and Systemic Approach
Neoextrativismo was conceived by Rego (1999), an agricultural economist at the
Department of Economics at the Federal University of Acre, almost four years prior to
the election of the Acre forest government. This concept emerged primarily as a response
to critics of community extractivism implemented in Amazonia. Homma (1993), who
was one of the most ardent critics, argued that extractivism was not feasible as a regional
development model. After the Workers Party (PT) victory, Rego became the Secretary of
Production and one of the most important policymakers in the forest government from
1999 through 2002. Thus, neoextrativismo, during this period, was consolidated as an
element for integrating economic, social, and environmental sustainability in land tenure
policies in Acre.
Neoextrativismo incorporated five inseparable aspects into community land tenure
development. First, neoextrativismo took into consideration the cultural behavior of local
residents. Second, it was conceived to consider community livelihood systems and their
implications for land use and land cover change. Third, it addressed community as a
means of balancing economic and ecological goals for policy. Fourth, it argued that any
technology for sustainable land use should be adapted to local inhabitants. Finally, the
neoextrativist approach emphasizes that policies addressing sustainability will only be
successful when smallholders are able to diversify their systems, for instance, combining
agroforestry, forest management, agriculture, and livestock.
Despite its original and systemic overview of the socio-ecological diversities and
its suggestions for establishing innovative public policies in the Amazonia, few studies
have assessed this approach. Kainer et. al (2003) point out that for the first time in the
Amazonia, an integrated policy framework regarding the local ecological, cultural,
economic, and social diversities was articulated via neoextrativismo. Maciel (2003), an
economist at the Federal University of Acre, assessing the Islands of High Productivity
(IAPs)lo as a component in the neoextrativist strategy, estimated that it should increase
"' Islands of High Produtividade (IAPs) were conceived by Kageyama (2002) as a strategy to increase
rubber production in the rubber tappers livelihood system in Amazonia. This experiment was implemented
in Acre, through which rubber tappers were stimulated to plant rubber trees within deforested areas and
bordered by neighbour forestry diversity. In some ways, IAPs were very similar to agroforestry systems.
The IAPs, while conceived as a neoextrativist model incorporated three dimensions: economic (economic
growth with rubber productivity): social (rubber tappers usually worked collectively to implant those
experiments); cultural (rubber threes have been the main activity for rubber tappers over the past 30 years);
rubber tappers gross income by 400% as a consequence of a reduction in labor
requirements. These results indicate that the neoextrativismo approach attempts to
incorporate livelihoods into a public policy agenda, while also pointing to the fact that the
transition from traditional development to forest based development could require a long-
term process. However, while alternative land uses suggested by this approach such as
the implementation of agroforestry systems with brazil-nuts require almost 30 years to
yield, the government mandate in Brazil is limited to four years. This fact contributed to a
new public policy approach after 2002 in Acre which I will discuss in the next section.
Florestania: Citizenship Based on Regional Integration, Short-Term Economic
Growth, and Conservation
In 2002 Viana again won Acre's election in a new national context. When Lula da
Silva, a close friend of Chico Mendes in the 1980s, took power as president of Brazil,
Marina Silva, who was a rubber tapper in Acre during her childhood, was selected by
Lula to take the position of Secretary of the Ministry of the Environment. Moreover, after
almost three years of negotiations, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) financed
the Acre Sustainable Development Program through which the state received US$ 250
million in loans for supporting its forest-based initiatives.
These new macro factors were fundamental in changing state planning in Acre.
While during its first phase, the forest government was characterized by attempting to
consolidate a development model based on community land tenures and land uses,
Viana's second term has attempted to establish Acre as a regional model for the Amazon.
Neoextrativismo, which focused on micro-scale and long-term socioeconomic outcomes,
was substituted by florestania as a new agenda for the state policies. The florestania
enviromnental (it should to contribute for forest regeneration); and political (Acre's govermnent in 1999
incorporated this initiative into the local public policies).
approach moved to publicize Acre as an economically efficient Amazonian development
model that has attempted to integrate both urban and rural populations as beneficiaries of
sustainable forest use.
Florestania has incorporated two perspectives into forest-based development
implemented in Acre over the past six years. First, this concept was founded on the
principle of universal human rights, including the citizenship rights of forest peoples.
Second, Viana's policymakers also included an environmental component within
citizenship. In this perspective, forest-based development could produce economic
growth to overcome social inequalities via environmental conservation.
The context of these efforts is manifested in the IDB Proj ect, the largest program
implemented by the government during its second mandate. The IDB proj ect' s short-term
goals are the promotion of economic growth, environmental sustainability, and local
economic diversification (IDB 2002). To implement its actions, this program was divided
into three sub-programs: a) sustainable forest management, conservation, and state
enforcement; b) employment, technology dissemination, and community-based subsidies;
and c) infra-structure investments in roads, rivers, and energy generation (BID Proj ect
2002). The IDB program inaugurates a new phase in Acre in which forest based
initiatives were incorporated into a context of regional integration.
A range of complementary endowments has been mobilized by the forest
government in order to implement its macro-planning. Besides IDB, Acre has also been
supported by the Brazilian government and the Corporacion Andina de Fomento
(Andean Corporation for Development) with approximately US$ 640 million for
implementing investments in infra-structure, public services, economic subsidies, and
other economic initiatives by 2006 (SEPLANDS 2005).
While addressing regional integration, the Acre government has also continued to
encourage land use strategies employed in community land tenure regimes. In this new
phase, however, emergent demand for forest products and the need to show the success of
this development model have forced policymakers, along with national and international
organizations, to place greater focus on economic rather than conservation goals within
communities. Although the long-term implications of this policy approach for
socioeconomic development and land cover is still not clear, some economic growth-
deforestation tradeoffs such as in cattle raising and logging have been observed.
Initiatives for regional integration implemented during the florestania period have
generated new concerns about the continued viability of community land tenures models
designed in the early 1990s to achieve economic, social, and environmental goals.
I will now move toward the third part of this chapter, which focuses on three land
tenure types present in the state of Acre: extractive reserves, agro-extractive settlements,
and colonist settlements. It will be divided into two parts. First, an overall description of
those land tenures types will be provided with an emphasis on differences in their
economic and environmental outcomes. Second, three specific study sites focused on this
thesis are described.
Community Land Tenure: An Emergent Issue for Assessment in Acre
The largest portion of the Acre government' s actions has been concentrated in the
Rio Acre watershed region. Both economic integration through the Pacific, and
community-initiatives such as within the Chico Mendes Reserve, colonist settlements,
and agro-extractive settlements are located in this area. In addition, this region holds
approximately 71% of Acre's total population and almost 56% of the total rural
population (Governo do Estado do Acre 2000a). The Rio Acre region also accounts for
83% of the total deforestation in the State (FUNTAC 1999). Although only 37% of this
region remained as forested area as of 1996, the largest percent of these forest areas
(87%)" was located within community land tenures of extractive reserves, agro-
extractive settlements, indigenous land, and colonization settlements. Almost 70% of all
colonist and rubber tapper families of the state of Acre are living in the Rio Acre
watershed region. These characteristics make the Rio Acre watershed in eastern Acre a
crucial area to assess the effectiveness of community land tenures models.
While agricultural smallholders have been pointed out as key agents for forest
clearance (Angelsen 1995, Godoy, Jacobson, and Wilkie 1998), in Acre, they are
regarded as agents for promoting conservation. On the one hand, extractive reserves and
agro-extractives reserves have been advocated as an ideal model to address human needs
through the harvesting of forest products (Allegretti 1990, Murrieta and Rueda 1995).
New land use strategies, such as agroforestry and forest management, have also been
argued as strategies for colonist settlements to reduce deforestation and bring economic
gains (Menezes 2004). On the other hand, while the long-term effectiveness of
extractivist models has been questioned (Homma 1993), recent studies have identified the
tendency for increasing deforestation within these land categories (Sassagawa 1999,
Gomes 2001, Lorena 2003).
Although community land tenures and their associated land use strategies have had
diverse evaluations, they became key components in Acre's policies. Understanding land
11 This estimation was performed through vector files processing with ArcView. The datasets were
available by ecological and economic zoning of the Secretary of Environment of the State of Acre.
ownership in this state as well as key factors associated with resource use management
activities are fundamental steps to evaluate the effectiveness of community managed
areas to bring economic growth with environmental conservation. I will therefore
summarize the main differences among three major categories of community land tenures
existent in the state of Acre.
Colonization Settlements (PC)
Estimates regarding the number of colonist farmers in the State of Acre range from
15,000 to 23,000 families (Governo do Acre 2000a, IBGE 1998) and their territories
cover between 1.4 and 1.6 millions hectares (INCRA 1999). The creation of these
settlements had three maj or goals: 1) to stimulate human occupation of Acre' s territory;
2) to establish agriculture and cattle as a hegemonic model for economic growth; and 3)
to reduce social demand through agrarian reform from small farmers of south, central and
southwestern Brazilian regions (Cavalcanti 1994). The largest number of colonists,
known as sulista~s, settled in Acre beginning in the late 1970s, and had extensive
experience working with annual and perennial crops as well as livestock. These economic
strategies contributed to their relatively good socioeconomic conditions (e.g., Cavalcanti
1994, Menezes 2004), but this has been counterbalanced by the large amount of
deforestation, landowner turnover, and soil degradation associated with colonization
areas.
Colonists were stimulated by INCRA to deforest their lands to implement
agriculture and cattle pasture areas. In fact, this was facilitated by the livelihood
background of these families, largely based on shifting cultivation systems. Although
accelerated urbanization created a local market for crops there has also been
landownership turnover among households of colonization areas (Cronkleton 1998).
As pointed out by Rego (2003), cattle are the main economic activity for colonist
farmers located in the Acre River watershed. His analyses show that in 1997, 63% of the
households in colonist areas commercialized cattle contributing over 30% of total
income. Cattle expansion has been a common characteristic among colonist families
(Menezes 2004) and may stimulate landowners to obtain new land for pasture
establishment. Land concentration and migratory movements have been related to this
process. Moreover, negative social consequences (such as migration and land conflicts)
and negative environmental outcomes (such as continuing deforestation) are anticipated.
Among community land tenure regimes, colonist farmers are key actors
contributing to deforestation in Acre. Using data available from the Brazilian Ministry of
Environment, I estimated that by 1996, approximately 30% of the total deforested area in
Acre was located within colonization settlements, while extractive reserves, state, and
national parks contributed less than 5%12. Based on the same dataset, I estimated that
37% of colonization areas were deforested by 1996, which was superior to the 20% of
deforestation permitted by Brazilian law to all rural properties in Amazonial3. Taking
into consideration that cattle and crops has been the main economies for colonists in
Acre, deforestation could still be increased in this areas.
12 See footnote 4 for details of how this amount was estimated.
13 The Federal Decree No. 2166/01 that altered the Law No. 4771/1965 (Forestry Law) establishes that
small and large farmers in Amazon region are permitted to cut down until 20% of forest within their land
plots.
Extractive Reserves (Resex)
Currently, there are two Resex in Acre covering almost 10% of the state' s
territoryl4 (Governo do Acre 2000a). Rueda (1995) argues that the demand for Resex in
Acre emerged as ecological, economic, and socio-cultural dimensions of land rights. The
ecological perspective is explained by the importance of the forest in the rubber tapper
livelihood, without which there could be no extractivism. Under that circumstance the
possession of land would not be important for rubber tappers. The economic dimension
of the Resex model implies that land concession was a mechanism for guaranteeing long-
term survival of rubber tappers and their families. Lastly, the Resex' s socio-cultural
dimension argued for the rubber tappers' right to be extractivists.
The incorporation of these dimensions into the Resex proposal was a result of an
intensive struggle led by the rubber tapper movement to consolidate a model of land
reform in the Amazon based on the livelihood system of local inhabitants. Rubber tappers
developed a forest-based livelihood system, including consumption from the gathering of
wild foods, hunting, medicinal plants, and cash income from non-timber forest products.
As a land tenure regime, Resex are characterized by being occupied by families who
combine indigenous agriculture, livestock, and forest activities in their land use
strategies.
Since their creation in the early 1990s, Resex resource management has
concentrated on non-timber forest products. Although rubber has not had an attractive
market, rubber tappers have continued to harvest this product. Over the past seven years,
14 The state government may create three additional extractive reserves which may increase the total area to
over 2,000,000 ha or approximate 15% of the territory (Governo do Acre 2000b). These new planned
Resexs would be located in the JuruB River watershed.
however, stimulated by local policies, many other non-timber forest products were added
to the range of commercial products explored by rubber tappers families, such as copaiba
oil (Copaifera ssp), murmur-u nuts (Astrocaryum murmumur), unha de gator (Uncaria
tomentosa), and agai (Enterpe oleraceal).
Agro-extractive Settlements (PAE)
Agro-extractive Settlements (PAE)lS comprise approximately 194,000 hectares and
have an estimated population of 1,050 families in Acre (Governo do Acre 2000a). This
category of land tenure was also a response of the Brazilian government to reduce land
conflicts, as well as deforestation, in Amazonia. The agro-extractive settlement (PAE) is
an intermediate category of land tenure between Resex and colonization settlements.
PAEs were initially conceived in 1987 as an alternative solution for Resex demands and
also as an immediate response from the Brazilian state for reducing land conflicts in the
Amazon region. Different from the extractive reserves, PAEs, like colonization
settlements, are regulated by INCRA. However, their population is largely constituted by
rubber tappers who have implemented a land use system very similar to Resex' families.
Indeed, as a consequence of their institutional flexibility and proximity of their
population to colonist practices, the timber management proj ects, which had strong
opposition from rubber tappers, were more easily launched in PAEs.
Even though the PAEs are administered by INCRA, their regulations and
inhabitants differ from those of colonist areas, such as Peixoto. Decree No. 268/1996
legislates that PAEs may be used for forest management through sustainable practices
(INCRA 1999). Kageyama et. al (2004) point out important differences between colonist
'5 Earlier the INCRA'S Decree 627/1987 called this form of land-tenure extractive settlement projects.
However, later in 1996, it was altered to agro-extractive settlement. Surely this change characterizes the
PAE itself as a combination of colonist and extractive land-use practices (see Kageyama et. al 2004).
and agroextrativist settlements: a) PAEs' settlers are more sensitive to resource
conservation; b) the plot sizes allocated to PAE families have been around 300 ha, while
in colonist areas this amount varied between 25 ha and 100 ha; c) the size of agricultural
and pasture areas among PAE families are less than those found among colonist farmers,
and cleared areas have often returned to secondary forest. Moreover, similar to extractive
reserves, PAEs have been defined as possessions of the federal government. Based on the
same regulation, PAEs are characterized as community land concessions that must be
managed by an association, cooperative or other variety of collective organization.
Currently in Acre there are eight PAEs, but INCRA and the State government are
planning to create 30 others over the next few years, which may raise the PAEs' land area
to approximately 1,900,000 hectares, or, 12.3% of the Acrean territory (Governo do Acre
2000b). As pointed out by Rego (2003), PAE settlers prior to 1997 relied upon a
combination of agriculture, livestock, and non-timber forest product-based land use
systems. However, after 1999, stimulated by forest-policies initiatives, timber forest
management came up as a new opportunity for rubber-tappers of these types of
settlements.
In the following section I will discuss the study sites in this thesis. I focus on how
the three areas of this research were selected as a sampling of extractive reserve, agro-
extractive reserves, and colonist areas located in the Rio Acre watershed region.
The Study Sites
Peixoto Colonization Settlement: The Agrosilvopastoral Model
The Grupo Novo Ideal (GPNI) rural association, which is located in the Peixoto
settlement, was selected as a colonization sample in the Rio Acre watershed. The
Colonization Settlement, in which this community is located, has around 318,000
hectares, and was created in 1977 by INCRA. This settlement, facilitated by the presence
of the BR-364 highway, emerged in the 1980s as the most important area in the Rio Acre
watershed region for food production (Menezes 2004). Situated around 150 kilometers
from the city of Rio Branco, Acre' s capital, GNPI is currently comprised of 27
smallholders.
As colonists, their land use strategies include a range of slash and burn agriculture
as well as livestock activities, but as a result of policy incentives since 1999, cattle- and
coffee have emerged as their main economic activities. In 1994, however, they had
launched experiments with agroforestry as an alternative to deforestation and means to
diversify their cash income. However, the agrosilvopastoral strategies of those families
have been strongly influenced by dynamics of land use that took place in the land tenure
regime in which they are located.
The land use history within this community, as in other colonist areas located in
Acre, has been characterized by a drastic transformation, from forest uses (e.g., logging,
rubber, and Brazil nuts) to agriculture and cattle production. Over the past few years,
however, soil degradation has been a constraint for colonists in maintaining their
agriculture and pasture areas. Arauj o and Silva (2000) show that soil fertility in this
settlement is not appropriated for agricultural activities. Yet, despite the area' s limited
shifting cultivation potential, Lorena (2003) observed that in Peixoto's lots, the annual
and perennial crops area as well as pasture increased from ~17% in 1990 to ~3 5% of the
total area in 1999. These expanding activities explain why the forest cover within this
settlement declined from almost 90% in 1984 to 54% in 199816. Both ecological and
16 I USed Landsat TM imageries of 1984 and 1998 to perform a forest-non forest unsupervised classification
to estimate the amount of deforestation within this settlement.
socioeconomic factors stimulate small farmers to clear more forest in order to
compensate for pasture degradation (Valentim et al. 2000), as well as to implement
alternative land uses to avoid deforestation.
To address the problem of pasture degradation, some initiatives have been launched
in Peixoto and other colonization areas. Over the past few years a coalition of
governmental and non-governmental organizations has attempted to introduce alternative
land use practices such as agroforestry systems (Menezes 2004). The GPNI community
was among the first areas in which these initiatives have been implemented. While until
the early 1990s the families in GNPI concentrated their land use strategies on slash and
burn crops and livestock activities with emphasis on cattle, in 1994 they were stimulated
to introduce agroforestry systems.
In collaboration with the Research Group for Agroforestry Systems and Extension
(PESACRE), a local NGO in Acre, three new components were incorporated into
livelihood systems of GNPI households. First, for reducing environmental degradation,
PESACRE encouraged community members to introduce agroforestry systems into their
land use practices. Second, for enhancing the competitiveness of their products as well as
decreasing the risk of health problems as a consequence of pesticide use, organic
agriculture initiatives were also established among GPNI' members. The last proposal
attempted to address the need to focus on long-term market sustainability through
leadership training and commercialization of agroforestry products.
Although the GPNI community may be characterized as a colonization proj ect, its
members have adopted innovative strategies for changing the conventional land use
practices within this category of land tenure. These families have combined traditional
agriculture, agroforestry, cattle, livestock, coffee, and fruit processing. Further, the forest
government, in its spatial economic zoning of 2003, established the area in which the
GPNI is located- as having potential for coffee, pupunha, and dairy cattle. As a result,
governmental planning may stimulate community members to shift their production
systems from agrosilvopastoral strategies to these activities. Additionally, other drivers
commonly affecting land cover change in Amazonia have also been observed, such as
timber extraction and the presence of unofficial dirt roads. In this dynamic context, it
becomes important to assess economic and land cover outcomes in a changing
colonization proj ect such as GNPI.
Porto Dias Agro-extractive Settlement: The Timber Forest Management Model
In the late 1980s, guided by Decree No. 627/87 that introduced the agro-extractive
settlement (PAE) as a new category of land tenure, INCRA initiated the discussion to
create the PAE Porto Dias. In 1989 this area was established with approximately 22,000
hectares, and in 2002, Porto Dias had a population of almost 90 families (Governo do
Estado do Acre 2000a). While PAEs are supervised by INCRA, an agency created for
implementing colonization settlement in Amazonia, Porto Dias was planned to settle
rubber tapper families. It is also characterized by having a combination of agricultural
colonists and forest extractivists. This combination has been present since its initial
moments of discussion for launching its creation in the early 1980s (Stone 2003).
Moreover, when the Brazilian government launched colonization settlements in the early
1970s and 1980s, some colonist producers established their lots within Porto Dias
(Michelloti 1993).
Porto Dias is divided into three geographic zones. Zone 1 is comprised of 27
members who are represented by the Porto Dias Rubber Tappers Association. Zone 2 is
managed by Sho Jose Association, called Mossor6, represented by 11 of the PAE's
residents. Zone 3 is under the control of the ASPOMACRE, an association that has its
headquarters located in the state of Rond8nia and has 103 members of which only 11 are
inhabitants of PAE Porto Dias.
The households of zones 2 and 3 do not consider themselves as rubber tappers and
prefer to be categorized as colonists. When interviews were conducted in these areas
these inhabitants declared that they had a preference of having their landholdings
(colocapies) outside of PAE territory, but INTCRA did not approve their proposal. The
range of economic activities addressed by these families reflects their self-categorization
as colonists. Cattle and logging combined with agriculture and small-scale livestock
production are their major economic activities. Forest products, such as rubber,
medicinal plants, and Brazil nuts have no importance for their subsistence or
commercialization.
In this study I have selected zone 1 to assess community timber forest management
in the Porto Dias PAE. This is the area where rubber tappers have implemented initiatives
combining forest management, as well as other land use for agriculture, cattle, and other
livestock. The Porto Dias Association was created in 1988 and its number of members
has varied over time. For the purpose of this study, all of the 27 households in Porto Dias
PAE Zone I were selected.
Timber management was implemented by the Porto Dias Association in 1994 with
the support of the Centro dos Trabalhadores da Amazdnia (CTA) (Center for Amazonian
Workers). The first timber harvesting, however, took place two years later in 1996.
Besides timber products, through support from the Federal Ministry of the Environment
(MMA), the forest management plan included also rubber, Brazil nuts and medicinal oils
such as copaiba (Copaifera spp). Since that time period, however, association members
have predominantly oriented their efforts toward timber production (Rodrigues 2004).
In 2003 the PDA became the second community-managed project to achieve Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) certification in Amazonia. This process is considered a
difficult task for any organization, given the bureaucratic demands and costs which are
particularly onerous for communities facing challenges in organization and physical
infrastructure. Technical support from outside organizations, such as CTA, was
fundamental for PDA Porto Dias to be successful in gaining certification status.
Although FSC certification was conceded to the association, the number of rubber
tappers engaged in timber management has varied from 7 to 10 families. Political
disagreements, lack of financial transparency, and limited financial and technical support
for community leaders, as well as absence of economic returns, have been the main
impediments to the timber management initiative.
Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve: The Non-timber Forest Management Model
The Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve is one of the premier communities in which
forest diversification has been pursued over the past years in eastern Acre. It is bordered
by large cattle ranchers that were the main group antagonistic to its creation. With almost
1 million hectares and an estimated current population of 3,000 families, the Chico
Mendes Reserve was the second extractive reserve created in the state of Acre in 1990,
established by Federal Decree 99, 144/90. Its inhabitants have concentrated their efforts
on non-timber forest products, small plots of agriculture, and livestock as their activities
for subsistence and cash income generation. Until 2004, it was the largest Brazilian
extractive reserve, stretching across parts of five Acre municipalities: Rio Branco,
Xapuri, Brasileia, Sena Madureira, and Assis Brasil. In the late 1970s and 1980s these
municipalities were where the land conflicts became most intense in Acre.
The first landmark for the creation of Chico Mendes occurred in 1980 when Wilson
Pinheiro, president of the rural workers union of Brasileia, was killed by large-scale cattle
ranchers. Almost ten years later in 1988, the assassination of Chico Mendes, the rubber
tappers' most high-profile leader, was the final step for the creation of this reserve.
Despite its importance as a land tenure category that has attempted to balance
economic, cultural, and environmental goals, some studies have identified the tendency
for accelerating forest loss in the Chico Mendes Reserve. Wallace (2004) noted that
rubber tappers have invested in livestock, including cattle, as a strategy for increasing
their total on-farm income. Sassagawa (1999) estimated that the percentage of deforested
area in this Resex increased from 0.72% in 1986 to 2.9% in 1998. However, it has been
an important barrier for forest clearing in this region. In 2001, monitoring using Satellite
GOES indicated that fire occurrence has been most intensive outside of this reserve
(Souza 2001).
Indeed, although the long-term viability of the Resex as a land tenure strategy has
been a concern among scholars, various initiatives conducted in collaboration with local
inhabitants have indicated its long-term economic and environmental sustainability (see
Maciel 2003 and Kageyama 2002). Over the past ten years, a coalition of governmental
and non-govemnmental organizations and universities has collaborated with Resex
communities to amplify their range of non-timber forest products as an alternative to
deforestation and intensive land use. For instance, since 1999 the forest government has
supported market-based initiatives though credit, subsidies, community training, and the
encouragement of 15 non-timber forest products (Kainer et al, 2003). In addition, the
Federal University of Acre (UFAC), supported by Brazilian and international
organizations, has been a key institutions collaborating with rubber tappers and their
organizations.
A few months after Jorge Viana won the 1998 election, a multi-institutional
partnership was established for implementing and monitoring the forest management
within three rubber tapper estates (seringal): Sho Pedro, Floresta, and Palmari. A group
of 34 rubber tapper landholdings (colocapi~es) were selected from those three seringais in
which the non-timber forest program has been implemented since 1999. These families
were selected in my study as cases of a non-timber forest model taking place within
Resexe in Acre.
The three seringais selected cover an area of almost 37,000 hectares and they are
located in the municipality of Xapuri. Some studies such as Esteves (1999) emphasize
that these three areas are among the places in the Chico Mendes Resex where, over the
past 10 years, intensive investments in Brazil-nut production has taken place, as well as
community organization activities. Esteves shows that economic and social benefits, such
as dirt roads, credit, and subsidies as well as education and health programs were
distributed based on kinship ties. These facts suggest that the socioeconomic benefits
were not distributed equally among rubber tappers of the Chico Mendes Resex. However,
since the forest government took power in 1999, the strategy employed by families of
these three seringais has been a reference point for establishing a common development
plan throughout the Chico Mendes Resex. These characteristics offer us a unique
opportunity to assess the community forest management model in terms of its economic
performance and capacity for forest conservation.
Land use strategies in the Chico Mendes Resex have been implemented in
accordance with its Utilization Plans (Planzos de Utilizagdo), which are defined by
common agreement between rubber tappers through their associations and IBAMA and
CNPT. Although many of those economic initiatives have been focused on non-timber
forest products, timber extraction has been discussed as an economic opportunity. Even
though timber management is not permitted within Resex areas, the Acre government
supported by Marina Silva, the current Brazilian Minister of the Environment, has
attempted to change the Resex law (Federal Decree No. 98,897) to incorporate timber
extraction for commercialization into the rubber tapper economy. Yet, the question of
timber versus non-timber models of forest management remains an important topic of
discussion among communities, their organizations, and policymakers.
Conclusion
While economic booms were historically a key driver for stimulating human
settlement in the Amazon region, policy instruments have more recently been utilized
there to facilitate economic development. In addition, local, national, and international
forces were arranged based on social coalitions among actors at various levels. For
instance, the social movement led by rubber tappers in the 1970s and 1980s with support
of organizations was successful to influence changes in the land tenure policies for
creating extractive reserves and agro-extractive settlements.
Although the policies of the forest government have been one of the most important
factors influencing land tenure after the rubber tapper movement of the late 1980s,
remarkable differences are visible in development policy since the forest government
entered in 1999. While neoextrativismo emphasized a policy based on sociocultural use
of natural resources, florestania has called for polices based on products with
comparative economic advantage at the regional level. The effectiveness of these policies
in terms of land cover and economic results will be evaluated through empirical data for
2004.
This study concentrates on three community land tenure systems for assessing the
economic and forest cover effects of these polices. The Chico Mendes Extractive
Reserve, Porto Dias Agro-extractive Settlement, and the Peixoto Colonization settlement
were selected as areas for achieving this analysis. These land tenure systems are a
representation of community land tenures located in the Rio Acre Watershed Region,
where both neoextrativista and florestania initiatives have been implemented.
Remarkable differences, such as socio-cultural, institutional, and livelihood system, are
evident among these land tenure types.
In the following chapter, I address methodological issues arising from the distinct
requirements for conducting economic and environmental research in each of these three
land tenure categories I divide the discussion into three maj or sections. The first will
concentrate on how the fieldwork was conducted. Secondly, I will explain how the land
cover and economic data were processed, as well as the key dependent and independent
variables in this study. And finally, I will discuss how economic and land cover were
linked in order to conduct the analysis.
CHAPTER 3
METHODS AND TECHNIQUES FOR ECONOMIC AND REMOTE SENSING
ANALYSES
Introduction
This chapter explains how I used economic and remote sensing approaches to
evaluate three land tenure types located in the state of Acre, Brazil. To identify the land
use and economic dynamics in the study areas, I combined survey fieldwork with remote
sensing data from an extractive reserve, an agro-extractive settlement, and a colonist
settlement. I compared land tenure categories in order to understand the linkages between
land use strategies and land cover in each community area selected.
Various studies have concentrated efforts on linking socioeconomic and land cover
factors at multiple scales. While some analyses have focused on the macro-scale (e.g.,
Cattaneo 2001, Carvalho et al. 2002), other studies have evaluated the dynamics and
drivers at the micro-scale, particularly at the household level. For example, Vosti et al.
(2003) elaborated a farm-level bioeconomic linear programming model to simulate
consequences of product and technology choices for deforestation. Walker (2003),
seeking an economic explanation of forest cover change at the household level in the
Amazon region, provided a smallholder model for colonist settlements based on
Chayanov household theory in which demographic and market variable are linked. Perz
(2001) also focused on economic and land use analysis at household level in colonist
areas of Amazon region using multivariate regression.
While these and other studies evaluate deforestation at the family level in the
Brazilian Amazon, I have identified virtually no work that compares multiple land tenure
types. A notable exception is Mertens et al. (2002), who focus on cattle economy and
deforestation in the state of Para, Brazil, and published a remarkable study in which
socioeconomic and satellite data were linked to understand land cover change over a
three year period. While these authors compared three land tenure types, the comparison
is made at the municipal level, which leaves out many important explanations found only
at a household level.
I focus on land use processes at the household level within three land tenure
categories in southwestern Amazonia: extractive reserve, agro-extractive settlement, and
colonist settlement. Consequently, the methodology involves both economic and land
cover analyses and was performed using three methods. First, I conducted Hieldwork,
which was divided into two parts: 1) a household economic survey in 2004; and 2) the
land cover GPS data collection during the summers of 2004 and 2005. Second, I
processed the data from the economic survey and GPS and satellite images. Households
were analyzed in terms of their economic results, that is, income and cost values
aggregated by economic activities (crops, timber and non-timber products, as well as
livestock). I utilized the GPS points and Landsat data to perform a supervised
classification for each community area. In order to correlate these results to the economic
outcomes, my classification distinguished four land cover types: crops, forest, pasture,
and forest regrowth. Third, I linked economic and land cover data for the three study
sites, in order to conduct a multivariate analysis to test my hypotheses about land tenure,
the economics of land use, and land cover outcomes.
In the next sections I discuss these three phases in more detail. I begin by
describing how the socioeconomic survey was carried out. In this part I discuss the
questionnaire, planning for fieldwork, a price survey, and the fieldwork itself. Second, I
focus on how the land cover GPS points were collected. The third part provides details of
how a calibration and validation of satellite data were carried out. The fourth section I
explains how economic and land cover data were analyzed.
The Socioeconomic Survey
In this section, I discuss how the socioeconomic data were collected. It is important
to note at the outset that this study resulted from multi-institutional collaborations with
various organizations in Acre, so I recognize my collaborators as co-authors of the
database on which I will draw. The 2004 survey resulted from collaborative efforts
among PESACRE, CTA, UFAC, and the State Government.
Besides research assistants, community members were also directly involved in the
field data collection. At the Porto Dias Agro-extractive Settlement, the residents
association selected five community members to take part in the research group. In the
Peixoto colonization site, the Novo Ideal Association's board director designated three
resident members to help us during our fieldwork. In the Chico Mendes Resex, the
Association of the Residents in Xapuri (AMOREX) mobilized five rubber tappers to
guide the group within the forest. They also helped applying the semi-structured
questionnaire. The Chico Mendes' fieldwork also counted on the participation of one
board director from the Rural Workers Union of Xapuri who had past experience with
socioeconomic surveys.
Prior to the fieldwork, additional planning was required given the distinct
characteristics of the study sites. First, helped by local stakeholders, I selected my study
sites within each land tenure category. Second, in order to grasp the land use specificity
of each land tenure type, I used meetings with community and institutions as an
opportunity to elaborate my questionnaire. After these two stages I carried out two
surveys. The first one was the household fieldwork in the three selected sites. The second
one was a price survey to make possible the estimation of income and costs. When I
concluded my two surveys, I organized the data in a spreadsheet program and calibrated
and validated the land cover classifications during the summer of 2005.
Household Sampling
The household sampling was carried out following three sequential phases. First,
helped by IBAMA, CNPT, CNS, and community organizations, I identified in the Rio
Acre watershed region community land tenures representing extractivist, agro-
extractivist, and colonist areas. For each community land-tenure types present in this
region, I distinguished communities by degree of socioeconomic development, taking
into consideration access (roads), presence of public services (school, hospital, etc),
community organization (association and cooperative), technical assistance, and level of
production. As a result, the Chico Mendes Resex, Porto Dias PAE, and Peixoto PC were
selected. Second, within these areas, I distinguished families working with
agrosilvopastoral and timber as well as non-timber forest management. This criterion was
adopted in order to evaluate the interface with public polices taking place in Acre since
1999, which have emphasized those land use strategies. Third, I also considered areas
with prior governmental investments, such as road construction, subsidies, governmental
support for commercialization, and certification. Consequently, one rubber tapper
association area, one rural association area, and three rubber estates were identified for
conducting this study. In the Chico Mendes Resex, the sample size was constituted by 34
families from the Floresta, Palmari, and Sho Pedro rubber estates. In Porto Dias, 27
households located in the area under the control of the Porto Dias Rubber Tapper
Association were selected. Lastly, within the Peixoto Settlement, the household sample
included 27 families organized under the Novo Ideal Rural Associationl6
The Questionnaire
The questionnaire was derived from participatory efforts with various stakeholders
and community members. This strategy was implemented to ensure that the livelihood
system of each land tenure type was captured by the survey. Overall, the questionnaire
focused on land cover, socioeconomic aspects, and resource management practices
targeted by forest government policies in Acre. As the livelihood and land use strategies
across land tenure are not similar, I elaborated one questionnaire for each study site (see
Appendix A, B, and C). For instance, in the Chico Mendes Resex communities, timber
forest management was not included in the questionnaire, because this activity is not
permitted in that tenure type.
The questionnaire was divided into eight sections. The first included
socioeconomic topics, such as household composition, migration, accessibility, and land
use distribution. Section two focused on crop production, livestock, and machines and
equipment. The third section quantifies costs and yield per type of activity conducted by
households, such as crops, livestock, and forest management. This section also included
family expenses on purchased goods and services (such as rice, beans, oil, salt, clothes,
health etc), as well as family and outside labor force. The fourth part evaluated the
amount of goods cultivated and/or harvested that were used for family consumption, such
SThe number of families does not correspond to the current number of members in this association. That is
because the sample included families that were not affiliated with the organizations.
as annual and perennial crops, livestock, herbs, forest products, among others. The fifth
section of the questionnaire considered cash income from commercialized production.
The sixth included off-farm income (e.g., bolsa escolar, salaries, retirement income). To
assess institutional support for land use strategies, the seventh section included questions
on rural technical assistance from governmental or non-governmental organizations.
Finally, the last section had open questions about public policies implemented in the
community area.
The Household Fieldwork
The field survey was carried out from May to August 2004. I selected five research
assistants with prior experience in socioeconomic surveys in rural communities in Acre,
each with different backgrounds (economics, geography, history, agronomic engineering,
and forestry engineering). On average, we spent one day with each household, in order to
conduct a semi-structured interview, participatory land use mapping, and GPS training
sampling.
Prior to the fieldwork, the assistants attended a one-week training course focusing
on the livelihood systems of smallholders, semi-structured questionnaires, and the use of
remote sensing and GIS techniques in the field. In the last two days of training, they
practiced these techniques in the the Humaita Colonization Settlement, located
approximately 30 kilometers from Rio Branco, in the municipality of Porto Acre.
Moreover, community members were included as part of the research team.
The Price Survey
To estimate values for all household costs (expenses) and income sources
(revenues), I conducted a price survey in the municipalities where families
commercialized their products and bought goods: Xapuri, Brasileia, Rio Branco,
Acrelindia, Epitaciolindia, and Placido de Castro. Moreover, cooperatives and
associations of producers were contacted, as well as the government offices to determine
the prices for timber and non-timber forest products. To correct for inflation, I used the
IGP (General Price Index), the most common index in Brazil for that purpose, to correct
all prices to February 2005. I used a mean price for each product or service to estimate
the income and costs of each family, which were corrected by IGP. These values were
converted to the mean U.S. dollar Brazilian real (R$) exchange for February 20052
Participatory Findings Assessment: Attempts for Calibration and Validation
Household analysis, especially when focused on economic analysis, has often been
an obstacle for socioeconomic researchers. Ellis (2000) emphasized the complexity of
empirical appraisal at the household level as a result of livelihood diversity as well as
inter-temporal social processes continuously taking place. Schmink (1984) argued that
household economics are determined by social processes which are historically defined.
In this context, I have understood that rural policies, as in Acre, have incessantly
failed as a consequence of lack of knowledge about smallholder livelihoods and
alternative strategies. In order to address these challenges, Hildebrand and Schmink
(2004) suggest a framework combining participatory methods and ethnographic linear
programming fostered by a constant participative process of simulation, calibration, and
validation of household models.
The survey methodology used in this study employ this approach. I involved local
residents and decision makers of local, regional, and national organizations during the
sampling, fieldwork planning, and the fieldwork itself. Calibration and validation of data
2 This study utilized the mean US$ to R$ exchange for February 2005 of US$ 1.00 to R$ 2.597.
were carried out in May 2005 when several stakeholders attended seminars in order to
evaluate the datasets.
These seminars were conducted in four phases. First, after the household and price
surveys, the data underwent processing and preliminary analyses. Results were then
discussed with researchers, policymakers, NGOs, and community organizations in Rio
Branco. Next, the data related to the amount of production and prices for timber and non-
timber forest products were corrected. Third, findings were submitted to community
members for evaluation of in each study site via participatory dialogue we discussed the
forest and agrosilvopastoral seasonal calendar, as well as the range of main products
extracted and their prices, and income and costs distribution. After these meetings, I
identified discrepancies, and the data were adjusted and re-processed.
Land Cover Data Collection and Fieldwork
In this study, I used Landsat 5 TM+ images from the scenes 67/001 and 67/002 of
about the same time of the year. The 2004 images were taken between July 29 and
August 26. For the two scenes, I used bands 1 through 5. In addition, I utilized ancillary
data including polygon shape files containing land tenure types applied for the study
sites. Polygons delimiting the Chico Mendes Resex, Porto Dias Agro-extractive
Settlement, and Peixoto Colonization Settlement were selected for this analysis.
While doing household interviews, the research team collected training samples of
land cover types (crops, pasture, forest regrowth, and forest) at the three study sites.
Additionally, a printed sub-set image of 2004 Landsat image3 was provided to each team
member for each area to identify likely land cover types in the household area. All GPS
3 The Landsat images were adjusted for RGB= 5, 4, 3 and georefereced for UTM, datum SAD 69, zone 19
South.
were adjusted to UTM, datum SAD 69, and zone number 19 South. To increase accuracy
of these data, each land cover point was collected at least three times. Training samples
collection was carried out using a modified version of the CIPEC training sample
protocol (Appendix D), which includes details such as soil, vegetation type, and presence
of human disturbance.
In this study, we collected 442 training samples and 366 CIPEC forms. This
fieldwork was carried out in two phases. First, during the fieldwork in 2004, we collected
345 training samples and completed approximately 300 land cover forms. Although the
field team was intensively trained for the land cover GPS point collections, I encountered
some difficulties in performing a supervised classification for the study areas during the
fall 2004. As Daly and Silveira (2001) pointed out, over 50% of Acre' s territory is
covered by bamboo forest. On the first supervised classification performed at the end of
2004, this vegetation dominance created confusion between forest regrowth, crops, and
bamboo-dominated vegetation. Consequently (second), from May to June 2005, I visited
all three community areas to collect new land cover samples (principally within bamboo
and secondary forest areas). During this period, I gathered 97 samples and 66 land cover
protocols. In the summer of 2005, I was able to complete a new supervised classification
and verify its accuracy at each study site.
The Post-Survey: Data Processing and analysis
Household Economic Approach
The economic analysis performed here was based initially on-Brazilian literature on
micro-economics and agricultural economics (e.g., Gastal 1980, Mafra 1988, Barros and
Estacio 1972, Guerreiro 1994, and Martin 1995) that elaborated economic parameters for
assessing input and outputs among smallholders. In addition, I drew on studies focusing
on the Amazonian smallholders (Vosti et al. 2003, Walker 2003) which have evaluated
households as economically rational decision makers who pursue profit maximization,
that is, they continuously plan their cost-income balances. This traditional model of
analysis ignores the aspects highlighted in peasant economy theory (Thorner et al. 1986).
This theory establishes that household economics (e.g., extractivists, agro-extractivists,
and small farmer colonists) aim to balance both market (sold yield) and consumption
(subsistence yield) goals. In this context, family labor as a cost component and
subsistence as an income element represented two important factors in the analysis.
For identifying the land tenure differences, an ex-post4 eCOnomic analysis was
performed in which inputs (factors of production) and outputs (production or economic
results) were estimated. Three aspects advocated by Gastal (1980), Mafra (1988), and
Barros and Estacio (1972) were utilized as guidelines for my economic assessment: 1) the
community land tenures as a system constituted by social, economic, and ecological
components; 2) an understanding of the extractive reserves, agro-extractive settlements,
and colonist settlements as systems of production defined by biophysical and social
dimensions; and 3) a view of the household as an economic unit within each land tenure
system and constituted by production and management goals. These considerations
required that inputs and outputs should be measured to capture the uniqueness of each
household within each community and land tenure type. The first step of the economic
analysis was based on income, cost, and profitability by type of product at the household
level. In the following section, I discuss these economic measures.
4 By ex post economic analysis I mean to say that household economic assessment was performed based on
household economic activities carried out prior to the survey. The 2004 household survey covered
economic activities carried out from June 2003 through July 2004.
Gross Income (GI) is defined here as the result of selling a product in the market,
and acts as an indicator of the scale of production. It also includes family consumption
from crops, livestock, and forest products. In addition, it reflects the land use strategy of
each family. Crops and cattle are expected to represent the maj or components for income
of colonist residents (Peixoto community), while timber and non-timber products are
expected to be most important for Porto Dias and Chico Mendes respectively. Gross
Income is calculated as follows:
GI= Qm. pp, (..
Where,
Qm = qv + qe + q, (3.2.)
Qm=quantity of the product destined for the market
qv= quantity of the product sold
qe=quantity produced in previous years and not sold
qc=quantity produced or harvested consumed by family
qp=unit price of the product
Total Cost (Te) is defined here as the total monetary value spent by the household
to produce or harvest specific products. It is derived by summing two components: the
variable costs (Ve) and the Eixed costs (F,). In the household analysis addressed by this
study, labor is the main element in V,. The total Eixed cost is distributed between values
that correspond to the determined product i, and is made up of the specific Eixed cost for a
determined product i (EFe) and the common cost of i products, called the fixed common
cost (CFe).
To = (Ye), + (e,) c 7F (3.3.)
=1- =1-
Where,
T, = Total Production Cost
V, = Variable Production Cost of product i
e,, = Specific Fixed Cost of product i
Ce = COmmon Fixed Cost of product i.
To evaluate the economic viability of the household production system, this study
also measured the profitability of rubber tappers and colonists economies categorized by
products. I therefore generated a profit (P) analysis to compare categories of products and
to correlate their profitability with deforestation.
Profitability also allows verification of the possibility of a financial gain, and
consequently accumulation at the family level. In contrast to some other studies which
used a type of analysis based only on gross income and total cost (Vosti et al. 2003), this
work included family subsistence into the gross income. The calculated formula for
profitability is,
R = GI Tc (3.4)
According to the results, I may observe three specific situations:
R > 0, where there is a gain
R < 1, where there is a loss
R= 1, break-even
Economic Analysis
The economic analysis of the study was based on primary data from 2004 and
focused on economic outcomes of land use strategies utilized by families in each land-
tenure type. For comparative purposes, I divided the data analysis into three parts. First, I
performed an economic analysis at the community level. During this phase I divided the
data into income and cost outcomes aggregated by products. In order to evaluate these
results I utilized mean, standard deviation, and skew. Second, I carried out a similar
analysis by land tenure types aggregated by crops, livestock, non-timber, and timber
activities. During this phase I used F-tests results to evaluate whether differences of
means among sites were significant. And third, I also performed a profitability analysis
by land tenure types.
Land Cover Data Processing
In addition to the socioeconomic survey, remote sensing techniques were utilized in
order to evaluate the land cover distribution within each study site. The land cover
processing performed in this study is presented in Figure 3-1. Using georeferenced land
cover samples collected in 2004 and 2005, I produced a land cover signature based on
2004 images for four classes: forest, crops, pasture, and regrowth. I then utilized this
signature to perform a supervised classification on a mosaic of 67-001 and 67-002 scenes.
Two hundred and twenty-one training samples of 442 collected in 2004 and 2005 were
selected through stratified random sampling for image classification. The remaining 221
training samples were used to evaluate the accuracy of my classification. All analyses
were performed using Erdas Imagine software version 8.4, ArcView GIS version 3.2, and
SPSS version 11.0.
Landsat images processing was carried out following various steps (Figure 3-1).
The first procedure to assess land cover was to calibrate the images (Green, 1999). I also
performed band-by-band atmospheric correction of the 2004 images as discussed in
Jensen (2005). I used a layer-stack to merge the five bands for analysis of each scene in
separate .img (Erdas) files. Next, I performed pre-processing tasks, and image-to-image
geo-referencing was done based on a 1995 image as a reference (Jensen, 2005). Once I
obtained the georeferenced, calibrated, atmospherically-corrected, and merged images for
67-001 and 67-002 scenes, I performed a supervised classification of the 2004 image.
Acre s
| ~1996 Image Image Training
Individu I Merged Georeferenced cairto albr td etm sape
2004 Lan sat LI0 ea fLa 0
Atmospheric
correction Sprie
boundaries Training
samples
smallholders
2004 Image Classified
land cover subset Accuracy 2004
types sssmnImage
SPSS Images
Processing assessment
Figure 3-1. Diagram of land cover processing in the study area, Acre, Brazil.
The classification for 2004 was submitted to two types of assessment. The accuracy
assessment was conducted based on 221 training samples collected during 2004 and
2005. Furthermore, a field appraisal of this classification was carried out in June 2005.
Over two weeks I visited each of the three study sites and assessed the accuracy of the
2004 classification, comparing on-the-ground observations with a printed map of the land
cover results in each community areas. With a GPS and via conversations with local
residents, I was able to validate the accuracy of each land cover class within each
community area. After the accuracy assessment and field appraisal of the classification
results, I identified the amount of area covered by each class at the household level.
These results were incorporated in the SPSS economic database.
Since this study addresses a socioeconomic and land cover analysis at household
level, I created a border for each family's landholding and analyzed it separately. In
Peixoto, I utilized the georeferenced plot boundaries collected by INCRA for each local
resident. Based on these digitalized lots I identified the GPNI community boundaries as
well as the properties selected in this study on the classified Landsat image (Figure 3-1).
Land cover analyses were performed on those selected residents.
In the Chico Mendes and Porto Dias communities, the limits of each household's
landholdings were not as easy to identify. Commonly, rubber tappers utilize rubber-trails
(estrada~s de seringa) as their natural boundaries. CNPT/IBAMA and INCRA, the
institutions responsible for those land tenure types, have had difficulty establishing
boundaries among smallholders of extractive and agro-extractive reserves. After an
intensive literature search for studies with similar problems in delineating household
property boundaries, I decided to utilize the Thiessen polygon algorithms based on fuzzy
set theory to produce boundaries for each colocagdo on these rubber estates.
Using the algorithm discussed above, I was able to define the boundaries among
each household property following three procedures. First, I used the location of the
household's home within their colocagdo, available from CNPT/IBAMA and INCRA, to
identify each family area. In the Chico Mendes Resex, I only selected colocapies within
the Sho Pedro, Palmari, and Floresta seringais. In the Porto Dias case, there were no
borders among seringais, and I made use of all georeferenced colocagdo points. Second, I
5 This is a remote sensing technique in which an individual area of influence around each set of points is
defined. Based on fuzzy theory, the polygons' boundaries are the area that is closest to each point relative
to all other points. They are mathematically calculated through two sequential steps. First, the entire area is
divided into polygons in which one polygon per point is established. Second, the distance among points
indicating colocagaes area is minimized. However, in the broad sense, the fuzzy logic utilized in this
approach to estimate boundaries of colocagaes, is a process of inferring imprecise conclusions from
imprecise premises. As pointed out by Dragi~evid (2005) this deduction is approximate rather than exact
because data described and generated under the circumstance of lack of information and accuracy
assessment implies a high cost. Since my summer time in Acre was not sufficient to assess the accuracy of
this technique within each family area, I was only able to evaluate the boundaries of two smallholders
within of each land tenure type.
produced colocagdo polygons using the Thiessen algorithm in ArcView based on fuzzy
set theory. Third, I selected polygons of sampled colocapies, which were georeferenced
during the 2004 fieldwork, in both Chico Mendes and Porto Dias totaling 61 family areas.
Economic and Land Cover Integration
Economic data from the household surveys were integrated spatially in a GIS with
satellite data for the land cover classes for each corresponding property polygon in the
three study sites. To identify the main factors related to deforestation in the study sites, a
multivariate regression analysis was carried out. Taking into consideration the limited
sample size in this research, this analysis was performed for all sites (88 households).
During this part of my analysis, I constructed five regression models based on
different theoretical foundations. The first model evaluated the effect of land tenure
category for deforestation. The second was a life cycle model in which I assessed the
effects of family dynamics on deforestation in the study sites. The third was a market
integration model in which I evaluated the influence of market access and family cash
purchases on land cover dynamics. The fourth model assessed the effects of cost
composition for deforestation among extractivist, agro-extractivist, and colonist areas.
Finally, in the last model I estimated the importance of assets for land cover dynamics in
the study sites.
Conclusion
This thesis seeks to establish linkages between economic and forest cover datasets
of three community land tenures types in southwestern Amazonia. I utilized a
combination of methods to link socioeconomic and satellite data. First, to generate an
understanding of distinct land tenure categories, a questionnaire was generated via a
collaborative participatory process. Second, I conducted the economic field survey of
households in the three study sites, recognizing the differences in the rules of each land
tenure type concerning resource management. Third, the classification of satellite images
for each study site was based on the four basic land cover types existent within of the
communities: forest, forest regrowth, pasture, and crops. Fourth, the data integration was
carried out by defining a common unit of analysis for both economic and remote sensing
approaches, in order to unify the data spatially to allow for a multivariate regression
analy si s.
CHAPTER 4
ECONOMIC AND LAND USE COMPARISON OF SMALLHOLDER LAND
TENURE MODELS IN THE STATE OF ACRE
Introduction
This chapter responds to the need for an empirical assessment of how community
land tenure models in Acre differ in terms of their economic and land cover outcomes.
Specifically, the chapter concentrates on how economic variables affect land cover
change among households within Resex, agro-extractive settlements, and colonist
settlements.
In order to address these issues, this chapter has three obj ectives. The first is to
examine crop, pasture, regrowth, and forest areas at the household level and to determine
the extent to which timber and non-timber forest management as well as
agrosilvopastoral strategies lead to different amounts of deforestation. The second
obj ective is to estimate the economic efficiency of each land use strategy implemented by
inhabitants of each study area. Finally, the third objective is to evaluate how micro-
economic factors are related to land cover distribution. Other non-economic factors, such
as family composition, age, distance to market, and length of residence are also
considered to explain land cover at the community level.
This chapter is organized into three parts. Part one offers an overview of land cover
distributions in each study site, in terms of forest, crops, pasture, and forest regrowth.
Part two introduces the economic analysis by evaluating household income, costs, and
profitability among tenure types and income sources, particularly pointing out the
differences between timber and non-timber forest management. Finally, part three
presents a multivariate statistical analysis of the effects of land tenure, economic
variables, and non-economic factors on land cover change. The chapter concludes with a
discussion of the main findings.
Revising the Research Questions
The first research question posed by this study is: how do economic and land cover
outcomes compare among the three types of land tenures? The land cover change
literature includes studies of land tenure, but studies comparing land cover outcomes
among various land tenure types in a given region remain very rare. The importance of
designing land tenure institutions as an influence on economic and environmental
outcomes therefore remains poorly understood. This limitation in the land cover change
literature is all the more significant because the design of land tenure institutions is
something that governments can control, and the diversity of land tenures in Acre, Brazil,
reflects many policy experiments to yield better economic and environmental outcomes
from land use. For precisely this reason, there is great interest in Acre, in Brazil and
elsewhere, and this interest motivates my first research question in this thesis.
The second question addresses an economic assessment of non-timber and timber
forest products among small producers. Since the creation of Resex and agro-extractive
settlements, their inhabitants and a series of development programs have concentrated on
the economic use of a range of non-timber forest products. More recently, timber forest
management proj ects have been introduced in several of these areas. The shift from
neoextrativismo to florestania is significant not only for the potential consequences on
land and forest resource use in different tenure types in Acre, but also for the profitability
of timber and non-timber forest products. That said, over the past years an intensive
debate has emerged focusing on potential economic risks associated with timber and non-
timber resource use within community areas in Acre. Furthermore, economic outcomes
from the recent emphasis on timber extraction are a key factor influencing smallholder
land use decisions. Therefore, my second research question focuses on the profitability of
timber and non-timber resource use.
The third question focuses on the factors best explain forest clearing among
households in Resex, agro-extrative settlements, and colonization settlements. Although
economic goals have been considered a key component in influencing land use strategies
within community land tenure areas, various income-deforestation tradeoffs can emerge.
For instance, smallholders can use profits to invest in pasture for cattle, which is a labor-
saving strategy utilized by families, but ranching results in more forest clearing.
However, by the same token, if forest management is economically viable (profitable), it
can also stimulate local inhabitants to use the net income to invest in activities that imply
to increase deforestation.
In working with each of these three questions I have developed one or more
specific expectations (hypotheses):
* H1: Extractive reserves such as the Chico Mendes Resex will have the most favorable
environmental outcome (lowest proportion of land deforested per household).
Colonization will have the best economic outcome (highest gross household income).
Agro-extractive settlement will have the best overall outcome (deforestation nearly as
low as Resex, and income almost as high as colonization settlement).
* H2: Non-timber forest products will be more profitable, because of their lower costs,
than timber extraction.
*H3: Higher profitability leads to greater deforestation, though land tenure categories
will also be important.
Land Cover Distribution among Land Tenures
This section presents a land cover assessment of household landholdings in the
three study sites. These results are particularly important to evaluate the policy
experiments concerning these different land tenure models in terms of land cover
outcomes. This study thereby provides a comparative understanding of how land cover
varies among the Resex, PAE and PC I visited. In this section I provide the results for my
supervised classification of the three land tenure types. First, I discuss the accuracy
assessment. Second, I compare three study sites in terms of their land cover distribution.
Accuracy Assessment of Land Cover
The accuracy assessment evaluates the precision of the supervised classification in
identifying land cover categories among the study sites. Table 4-1 presents the results in
the error matrix for the classes of forest, cropland, pasture, and forest regrowth from the
supervised classification. The matrix illustrates both errors of exclusion (omission errors,
i.e. degree of Producer' s accuracy), which measures how much of the land in each
category was classified correctly, as well as errors of inclusion (commission errors, i.e.
degree of User' s accuracy) that measures the percentage of correctly classified pixels in
each land cover category of the images (Jensen 2005). The overall accuracy is expressed
as a combined percentage of the test-pixels successfully assigned to the correct classes.
The results indicate that the classification had a high degree of accuracy for the
land cover classes 'crops', 'regrowth', and 'pasture,' with 89-96% producer's accuracy.
However, the accuracy for correctly identifying forest areas was lower, with a 74%
producer' s accuracy, which likely resulted from the difficulty in classifying bamboo-
dominated forested areas in the study region, which can easily be confused with
regrowth. Nevertheless, the user' s accuracy results for pasture and crops indicate that my
2004 classification was conservative, implying a potential bias toward classifying these
land cover categories as forest, resulting in an underestimation of the extent of
deforestation. On the whole, one might conclude that because the overall accuracy of the
entire classification was quite high (87%) and the producer' s accuracy varied from 90 to
96%, this classification is adequate for analyzing forest cover in the study areas.
Table 4-1. Accuracy assessment for 2004 supervised classification for the study sites in
Acre, Brazil.
Reference Classified Number Producer' s User' s
Class name
totals totals correct accuracy accuracy
Unclassified 9 7 0
Forest 39 33 29 74.4% 87.9%
Pasture 36 42 32 88.9% 76.2%
Crops 49 58 47 95.9% 81.0%
Forest regrowth 88 81 80 90.9% 98.8%
Totals 221 221 193
Overall Classification Accuracy = 87.3%
Comparing Land Cover among Land Tenures
Land cover analysis was performed for the households sampled in the three study
sites, each corresponding to a different category of community land tenure. To perform
the analysis, it was necessary to identify or estimate the boundaries of land claimed by
the sampled households. While boundary data regarding the division among household
lots in the Peixoto colonization proj ect were available from INCRA, the geographic
limits of the colocagdes in both the Chico Mendes Resex and the Porto Dias PAE had to
be estimated using the Thiessen polygon algorithm based on fuzzy set theory.
Before applying this estimation method to the whole data set, the methodology was
tested in 5 colocagdes in the Porto Dias community. During that test, rubber tappers of
the Porto Dias indicated that their areas had between 3-5 rubber trails This results in
overall estimates of 300-500 hectares per household landholding. Using a GPS unit and
guided by rubber tapper household members and their neighbors, I measured colocagdo
boundaries and on the basis of these measurements estimated the total colocagdo areas to
be between 230-560 hectares, indicating a wider range of area than conventional
estimates. The colocagdes' shapes resulting from using the Thiessen polygons based on
fuzzy set theory were compared to the Hield data and indicated that they were similar to
the limits identified with the GPS tracking points.
An important implication that can be derived from these results is that deforestation
levels for each rubber tapper area in the Chico Mendes and Porto Dias, if based on the
conventional 100 hectare/trail assumption, are likely to be underestimated for some
families and overestimated for others. Hence, most previous deforestation estimates and
deforestation controls at household levels have likely not been very accurate. This study
therefore presents a first attempt to overcome this problem.
Using land cover classifications and areal estimation Eigures for all three study
sites, I obtained the results presented in Table 4-2, which shows descriptive statistics for
each land cover category. In order to identify the most appropriate metrics to evaluate
land cover distributions, I present results for: raw values, percentages, and natural log
values. Land cover was categorized in terms of crops, pasture, and regrowth. In addition,
I calculated deforestation category summing crops, pasture, and regrowth.
SRubber trails have been conventionally estimated as covering roughly 100 ha each
Table 4-2: Land cover categories at household level, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil.
Land cover category Hectares Percentage Log value
Deforestation
Mean 29.94 16.59 3.11
Standard Deviation 22.45 14.46 .82
Skew 1.55 .68 -.49
Crops
Mean 8.46 4.55 1.92
Standard Deviation 6.31 3.87 .69
Skew 2.35 1.22 -.23
Pasture
Mean 20.20 11.39 2.48
Standard Deviation 17.32 11.21 1.21
Skew 1.00 .79 -.704
Regrowth
Mean 1.28 .65 -.38
Standard Deviation 1.68 .87 1.27
Skew 2.62 2.24 -.07
While no land cover types presented a high standard deviation value for all types of
measurements, the skewness indicated some deviation from normal-di stributions. Skew
values close to "O" suggest a normal distribution. On the one hand, the skew for mean
raw and percentage values was positive, which means that their distributions tend to have
extreme high-values. On the other hand, skew values for logged values were all negative,
which indicates that this distribution tends to have extreme low-values. Based on the
findings in Table 4-2, for the remainder of the analysis I focus on the percentages. This is
because they have low standard deviations and skew values, something lacking in the raw
values. Moreover percentages are easier to understand and compare than raw or logged
values.
Crops and pasture are the most important land cover categories deforestation in the
three study sites. Deforestation overall exhibits a mean of around 30 hectares (~ 17% of
total area) per household. This result might indicate a total level of deforestation above
the 10% authorized by IBAMA and INCRA within Resex and agro-extractive
settlements. However, this interpretation ignores potential differences in the extent of
deforestation among land tenure types.
The lowest values are for the regrowth class, with a mean of less than 1% of the
total area. This result can be explained by the importance of crops and pasture to
smallholders. Commonly smallholders temporarily abandon productive areas to regrowth
for 2-5 years, called the pousio period, then they clear, burn, and reuse the regrowth for
crops or pasture (Amaral 1998).
The most important results in Table 4-2 are twofold. First, percentages are the most
appropriate measure to evaluate the distribution of land cover in the study sites. Besides
the low standard deviations and skew values, percentages allow for direct comparisons
among the land tenure categories and are easier to interpret. Second, the results show that
pasture is the main land use category that contributes to overall deforestation. However,
the importance of crop cultivation and cattle ranching may vary among land tenure
categories. To assess this possibility, the next step in this analysis compares the
percentage of land covers among the three land tenure types.
Table 4-3 provides a comparison of land covers among land tenure types in the
three study sites. I present F-tests for the significance of differences among the three
tenure types. Deforestation percentages are significantly different across land tenure
types (p<.01). Although colonist families in Peixoto PC have made efforts to establish
Deforestation (%) 4.99 12.27 35.52 181.543**
Crops (%) 2.32 3.13 8.75 48.555**
Pasture (%) 1.99 8.87 25.76 169.111**
Regrowth (%) .68 .25 1.00 5.560*
p<.05, **p<.01
In addition, the percentage areas under crops and pasture are also significantly
different among the three tenure types represented in the study sites (p<.01). On the one
hand, pasture is the land cover that contributes most to deforestation in both the Porto
Dias and Peixoto sites. In the Chico Mendes Resex, on the other hand, most forest
clearing was for crop production. This indicates that while rubber tappers of Chico
Mendes are focusing their efforts on agriculture, possibly for their subsistence and
production of cassava sale, cattle raising emerges in Porto Dias and Peixoto as the most
important activity contributing to deforestation.
The F-Tests result indicated that the differences among mean percentage for
regrowth across land tenures are significant (p < .05), the differences are not as
pronounced as for the other land cover categories. Porto Dias PAE seems to be the
sustainable agrosilvopastoral systems, this area exhibited the highest level of
deforestation (~ 36%). In contrast to Peixoto, the three rubber estates of the Chico
Mendes Resex selected in this study exhibited the lowest level deforestation percentage
(~5%). And in the Porto Dias PAE, the households sampled had deforestation
percentages in between the other two land tenures (~12%), but closer to the percentage in
the Resex than the PC.
Table 4-3. Descriptive statistics for land cover categories, by land tenure type, Acre,
Brazil, 2004
Chico Mendes Porto Dias
Land cover Peixoto PC
Re sex PAE F -te sts
variables (N3 N2)(N=27)
community with the lowest level of this land cover category (0.25%). In the Chico
Mendes Resex, this mean percent value is 0.68%. As regrowth is an area of reserve for
potential future use, its extent can be interpreted as an indicator that other areas within
landholdings might be been utilized for crops or pasture purposes. In her research in
Acre, Ehringhaus (2005) observed that the overall percent of regrowth area is decreasing
due to two parallel processes: 1) as residents invest more in ranching, they are converting
young regrowth into pastures, and 2) they are converting agricultural fields directly into
pasture and not letting them lay fallow for the development of new regrowth. Moreover,
she noted that residents are also increasingly establishing new fields in primary forests
and less in regrowth areas.
These results provide important insights to evaluate the effectiveness of policies
underlying each land tenure category with regard to its environmental conservation goals.
While the Chico Mendes Resex and the Porto Dias PAE were created to establish land
concessions for sustainable forest use, the Peixoto PC emerged as an area for agricultural
land use, and not forest conservation. The policy goals of colonization proj ects, agro-
extractive settlements, and extractive reserves are thus very evident in the higher
percentage of deforestation in Peixoto than in Porto Dias and Chico Mendes. This
suggests that the land use regulations institutionalized in agro-extractive settlements and
extractive reserves, at least as practiced in Porto Dias and Chico Mendes, are effective in
reducing deforestation relative to that seen in colonization areas such as Peixoto.
This section evaluated land cover in the Chico Mendes Resex, Porto Dias PAE, and
Peixoto PC. Findings from remote sensing indicated differences between the three sites,
especially with respect to deforestation for pasture and agriculture. The different land
cover profiles of the three tenure categories raise questions about the conservation value
of these areas and the household economic decisions being made in the context of
different land tenure regulations concerning resource management. In the next section, I
therefore address such questions with an analysis of income, costs, and the profitability of
different economic activities in the three study sites.
Economic Analysis for Land Tenures in the State of Acre
This section offers insights into smallholder land use strategies based on three
economic criteria: income, cost, and profitability. First, I will describe the data regarding
cash income generation across the three land tenure types. Second, I will compare costs
of production for different products. Third, I will concentrate on a profitability analysis
for all product types by category of land tenure. These results will allow a comparison
across land tenure types as well as categories of products. As forest policies and
institutional goals within these land tenure models have sought to enhance economic
welfare among households, this analysis can provide an evaluation of the effectiveness of
the strategies behind policies constituting different land tenure types. In particular, this
section will compare the three types of alternative land use strategies implemented in the
three land tenure models: timber, non-timber, and agrosilvopastoral production. I will
evaluate these strategies economically in terms of their gross income generation,
production costs, and profitability, may be quite dissimilar. In addition, I will address the
issue of whether these economic outcomes may vary so as to reveal tradeoffs with respect
to land cover outcomes.
Gross Income
Table 4-4 compares gross household income among the three land tenure type.
Standard deviations were low in most land tenure types. In addition, except for gross
income from livestock within the Chico Mendes Resex and the total income for Porto
Dias PAE, all skew values were larger than 1.0, which suggests a few "outliers" with
high values. Logging is not authorized within the Chico Mendes Resex by IBAMA and
CNPT; therefore I report no income data from logging in this area.
Table 4-4. Descriptive statistics for annual income, by land tenure type, Acre, Brazil,
2004
Chico Mendes Resex Porto Dias PAE Peixoto PC
Ecnoicacivty(n=34) (n=27) (n=27)
Crops (US$)
Mean 181.00 311.00 1,763.00
Standard Deviation 140.00 150.00 1,433.00
Skew .33 1.78 .77
Livestock (US$)
Mean 268.00 979.00 1,931.00
Standard Deviation 176.00 723.00 1,879.00
Skew -. 11 1.84 1.19
Non-timber (US$)
Mean 681.00 805.00 28.00
Standard Deviation 427.00 467.00 61.00
Skew .63 .32 3.00
Timber (US$)
Mean -- 1,385.00 153.00
Standard Deviation -- 1,840.00 736.00
Skew -- .57 5.15
Total (US$)
Mean 1,130.00 3,567.00 4,109.00
Standard Deviation 495.00 1,497.00 2,759.00
Skew .32 -.12 .71
Three noteworthy differences emerge in Table 4-4. First, as expected, Peixoto had
the highest mean total gross income (~ US$ 4,100.00 per year). Livestock as well as
crops are the most important products to the households of this area. Given the high
deforestation percentage in Peixoto, this result indicates an economic-environmental
tradeoff, which also casts doubt on the commitment to sustainability on which
agrosilvopastoral systems were based. In fact, during the Hieldwork in 2004, no small
farmers reported any income from agroforestry or from a combined crops-forestry
system. Second, households in the Chico Mendes Resex had the lowest mean total gross
revenue (US$ 1,130.00 per year). Given the low deforestation percentage in the Resex,
this finding also implies an economic-environmental tradeoff. But third, Porto Dias
stands out, because residents of this area generated a mean gross income of US$ 3,570.00
per year. This is a key finding, because resource use in Porto Dias reflects a combined
forestry and agrosilvopastoral model, which yields a mean gross household income
nearly as high as in the Peixoto colonization proj ect, with a deforestation percentage
nearly as low as in Chico Mendes Resex, via a diversified production system.
I suggest two possible explanations for differences in cash income generation
across land tenure types. First, a household's ability to mix multiple income generation
strategies contributes considerably to the access to various market niches. Second, a
combination of prices incentives, distance to market, and local demand may also be key
factors affecting these communities. These two interpretations were confirmed during the
Hieldwork. Rubber tappers of the Chico Mendes Resex concentrated their efforts on the
extraction of rubber, a product with lower prices, and on harvesting Brazil nuts that bring
high prices. In Porto Dias PAE, families did not explore rubber and preferred to devote
their efforts to products with high prices, such as Brazil nuts, copaiba oil, forest seeds,
and medicinal plants. Peixoto is an area with higher crop and cattle demands from large
ranchers and urban areas, which may have contributed to a higher gross income from
crops and livestock activities.
With the exception of Peixoto, the results confirmed the economic importance of
land use strategies based on non-timber and timber production. In the Chico Mendes
Resex, non-timber forest management was the land use that provided the largest share of
mean gross income (~ US$ 690.00 per year). Timber (~ US$ 1,385.00 per year), on the
other hand, was the product with the largest share of mean income among rubber tappers
of Porto Dias. Further, the mean income obtained from non-timber forest products (~
US$ 800.00 per year) among residents of Porto Dias was higher than income obtained by
families in Chico Mendes.
Although sustainable forest uses were confirmed as the most important activity for
rubber tapper communities in Chico Mendes and Porto Dias, the results also indicated
livestock as an important activity for all areas. Among residents of Chico Mendes and
Porto Dias, this was the second most important activity, with approximately US$ 270.00
and US$ 980.00 of mean gross income per year, respectively. In Peixoto, however,
livestock was the most important source of income.
These results indicate that the residents of 'sustainable' land tenure models such as
Resex and agro-extractive settlements rely to a higher extent on forest products for their
income. While the average income of these families is lower than those living in the
colonization proj ects, the importance of forest-based production is clear. Another
important conclusion from these results is that although colonist households of Peixoto
have implemented an agrosilvopastoral model in their areas, livestock production remains
the most important source of income. At the same time, cattle ranching is also gaining
importance among rubber tapper households, raising new questions regarding the long-
term ecological sustainability of Resex and agro-extractive land tenure.
General Cost Analysis
While gross income is an important indicator of economic success of a particular
land use, the cost involved among the production types is also a key economic variable
driving affecting land use decisions in the different land tenure models. However,
economic analyses of land cover change have rarely considered production costs as well
as gross incomes generated by land use at the household level. In the following section I
will first focus on cost composition, by providing first an overall cost assessment for
households in my sample to identify the overall cost patterns. Second, I will concentrate
on a comparative cost assessment among the land tenure types. This discussion will also
compare production costs among types of activities carried out by households. This
information is important for identifying the level of economic viability for each type of
product, in the context of specific land tenure types. For instance, it may be useful to
assess the viability of implementing agroforestry system in the Chico Mendes Resex as
well as in the Porto Dias PAE.
Table 4-5 summarizes the composition of annual mean costs by economic activity
for all three communities taken together. Three types of costs are presented in this table.
The first column in the table refers to the total cost for each economic activity. The
variable costs are expenses that vary according to the volume and intensity of each type
of input, such as quantity of labor time, salt for cattle, seeds for pasture or crops, oil for
vehicles, etc. Fixed costs, on the other hand, are costs that arise with or without
production such as the depreciation of machines and equipment, and other investments in
the property. Table 4-5 presents total, Eixed, and variable costs for different economic
activities, namely crops, livestock, non-timber forest products, timber, and all of these
products together.
Table 4-5. Descriptive statistics for annual cost categories, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil,
2004.
Economic activity Total Fixed Variable
Crops (US$)
Mean 497.00 122.50 359.00
Standard Deviation 373.00 166.00 248.00
Skew 1.83 2.90 1.00
Livestock (US$)
Mean 593.00 137.50 455.00
Standard Deviation 622.00 194.00 533.00
Skew 1.86 4.23 2.00
Non-timber (US$)
Mean 453.00 65.00 388.00
Standard Deviation 442.00 78.00 396.00
Skew .78 2.54 .86
Timber (US$)
Mean 731.00 106.00 626.00
Standard Deviation 2,047.00 293.00 1,755.00
Skew 2.49 2.50 2.50
Total (US$)
Mean 2,316.00 437.00 1,878.00
Standard Deviation 2,099.00 374.00 1,859.00
Skew 1.86 2.51 1.87
As can be seen in Table 4-5, all economic activities had costs with relatively small
standard deviations, except the total and variable costs for timber. The result for timber
was strongly influenced by timber production costs in Porto Dias. The skew value for the
fixed costs for livestock were the highest among all categories (4.23), which suggests that
the cost values for this category tend to be higher rather than lower. The non-timber' s
skew value for total costs, on the contrary, was the lowest value (0.78). Overall, skew
values indicate that the results for all categories of products across all cost types tend to
be high, indicating "outlier" households that spend considerably more on certain
economic activities.
All cost types for timber showed high standard deviations, which reflect the high
costs of timber management. Certification, transport, road repairs, depreciation of
equipment, and a skilled labor force are the expenses that have contributed most to higher
costs for timber extraction.
Three main insights can be drawn from Table 4-5. First, variable costs are the main
category of costs for all productive activities. Among smallholders in Acre, family labor
is the main component of variable costs, a reflection of the importance of household labor
inputs and the labor-intensity of many of the activities in Table 4-5. Families in the three
study sites reported that all family members, including children, adults, and the elderly
are engaged in all production activities.
Second, timber extraction is very costly and not as economically attractive as its
high gross incomes seen earlier might suggest. The mean total cost (~ US$ 730.00 per
year) for timber extraction was higher than for livestock (~ US$590 per year), or any
other activity. As a result, when rubber tappers compare timber with other economic
activities, they are more likely to invest in non-timber forest products or cattle raising
instead of timber harvesting. Nevertheless, this may depend on the price incentive from
each economic activity. For instance, while the mean farm gate price for cattle in these
areas was US$ 143.00/head, during the same period the price for timber was US$
115.00/m3. Later in this chapter I will undertake a profitability analysis, which will
further explore this issue.
Third, although timber exhibited the highest total and variable costs, crops and
livestock were the activities with highest fixed costs. Two reasons account for this
finding. In recent years many households, especially in Peixoto, have invested in
equipment and assets for cattle and agriculture such as fences and equipment, supported
by BASA's (the Amazonian Bank) credit program. This contributed to high depreciation
costs for Peixoto households. Rubber tappers participating in the timber forest
management, on the other hand, rented skidders and other machines from third party
companies, thus reducing the costs of depreciation.
Three other conclusions may be drawn from the costs analysis in light of household
financial well-being as well as the earlier analysis of land cover. First, during the survey
the families pointed out that their systems are highly dependent and limited by family
labor availability. Second, approximately 80% of the total cost was constituted by
variable costs (US$ 1,878.00), which reveals the weak capacity of families to make
investments in technologies such as machines and other apparatus for reducing labor
costs. This situation has been partially overcome with funds and subsidies from
organizations such as BASA or the Acre government. However, this assistance is also
likely to increase the fixed costs as well as increasing the demands on family labor that
might have to be allocated to generate sufficient income to repay the credit. The forest
government has established programs to donate equipment for rubbers tappers and
colonist families to avoid this cycle of smallholder debts. The third conclusion relates to
the implications of costs for household land use decisions and land cover changes. Both
rubber tappers and colonists consider total costs and labor requirements in their land use
activities. In the absence of a family labor reserve and in the presence of high production
costs, many households may move toward activities that are less labor-intensive, such as
cattle raising. As result, this situation may contribute to increase the number of families
in debt with Einancial organizations.
The issues that emerged from the cost analysis are key aspects for any evaluation of
the effect of subsidy policies on household economic welfare as well as land use and land
cover change in the state of Acre. Economic and conservation strategies, then, should
take into consideration total costs and especially labor costs as key constraints for local
producers. However, it is important to take into consideration the variability of costs
among land tenure types designed to encourage different land use strategies.
Cost Analysis at Community Level
In this part I provide the second part of my cost analysis, examining costs
differences across land tenure types. It compares costs for different economic strategies
across households in extrativist, agro-extractivist, and colonist areas. Special attention
will be given to the costs of timber and non-timber forest production. In addition, this
section aims to briefly discuss why the cost categories for each productive activity differ
among land tenure types. These results will provide insight on how costs for each group
of products affect household land use decisions and land cover change.
Table 4-6 provides mean Eixed, variable, and total costs by land tenure type and
type of product. As anticipated, there are noticeable differences in the production costs
among the three land tenure types. F-tests results indicate that differences of costs for all
groups of activities are significant across sites. While Porto Dias was the community with
the largest mean total cost (~ US$ 3,900.00 per year), total costs in Peixoto were nearly
as high, whereas the families of Chico Mendes Resex had the lowest relative costs.
Although the mean total value for fixed cost was comparable for Peixoto and Porto Dias,
there are differences in the cost composition among their productive activities, especially
for timber. Moreover, it is apparent that the variable costs comprise the greatest portion
of total costs of all economic activities in all three areas. These results again confirm the
importance of family labor for all land uses.
Table 4-6. Annual mean for cost categories, by land tenure type, Acre, Brazil. 2004
Chico Mendes Porto Dias
Peixoto PC
Economic activity Resex PAE F-tests
(N= 27)
(N= 34) (N= 27)
Crops (US$)
Total Cost 401.00 303.00 812.00 21.054**
Fixed Cost 86.00 36.00 255.00 18.089**
Variable Cost 315.00 267.00 505.00 8.290*
Livestock (US$)
Total Cost 140.00 689.00 1,066.00 27.676**
Fixed Cost 64.00 104.00 263.00 10.226**
Variable Cost 76.00 585.00 803.00 22.795**
Non-timber (US$)
Total Cost 714.00 549.00 29.00 32.706**
Fixed Cost 117.00 54.00 9.00 22.325**
Variable Cost 594.00 495.00 21.00 27.633**
Timber (US$)
Total Cost .00 2,371.00 12.00 32.706**
Fixed Cost .00 339.00 5.00 22.325**
Variable Cost .00 2,033.00 7.00 27.633**
Total (US$)
Total Cost 1,252.00 3,914.00 2,057.00 16.929**
Fixed Cost 268.00 534.00 554.00 6.423*
Variable Cost 985.00 3,380.00 1,503.00 18.674**
*p< .05; **p< .01
Table 4-6 indicates that livestock production costs varied considerably across sites.
While the lowest total cost for livestock production was in the Chico Mendes Resex (US$
140.00 per year), the costs were higher in the Porto Dias PAE (US$ 689.00 per year) and
especially in the Peixoto PC (US$ 1,066.00 per year). These increasing costs can be
explained by the relative importance of this category of production for each community.
Notably, pasture degradation has contributed to an increase in the annual cost of livestock
production for families in Peixoto PC.
Table 4-6 also shows that variable costs are the highest costs for all products across
all sites. However, soil degradation has been related by colonist families as a key
ecological factor negatively affecting the costs of livestock production within the Peixoto
PC. This is an important as it may indicate the potential long-term economic inefficiency
of cattle ranching among small farmers in this region.
There are two significant differences between the Chico Mendes Resex and the
Porto Dias PAE. Although crop production was the second highest cost category among
households of the Chico Mendes after non-timber forest products, for the Porto Dias
families the livestock production costs were the second highest after timber production.
There are two likely explanations for these results. During the period of this research
(2004), the maj ority of families of Porto Dias were clearing regrowth for pasture, and this
task was carried out with family labor, which explains the relatively high mean variable
cost for livestock. In contrast to this, many colocagdes of the Chico Mendes Resex
cleared forest for the production of annual crops, which required intensive use of family
labor as well.
For the rubber tapper families, the highest production costs were associated with
forest products. In the Porto Dias PAE, the highest production costs stemmed from
timber production and to a lesser extent from livestock production. The forest
management proj ect implemented by the NGO CTA in this area since 1994 has
introduced an entrepreneurial management plan that has involved high economic costs.
Although over the past two years, rubber tappers participating in the timber initiative in
Porto Dias have attempted to reduce costs, expenses related to transport, depreciation,
and hired employees remain high, and represent a great part of the total costs. This
suggests the long-term economic challenged faced by households participating in timber
extraction. Non-timber forest products were the products with the highest costs in the
Chico Mendes Resex. Rubber remains a key activity for many families in this area, but
the low concentration of rubber trees per hectare as well as intensive labor inputs required
contributed to high variable costs.
Although cost may be a key variable affecting household decisions, economic
viability is the primary goal of all families. Thus, in the following section, as a third
component in the economic assessment I analyze the profitability of the different
productive activities in different tenure areas.
Profitability Analysis
After analyzing both gross income and costs of different land use strategies within
the three land tenure models, here I compare both income and costs in a profitability
analysis for all categories of products across land tenure types. This represents the most
important step of the economic analysis because it measures the economic effectiveness
of each production strategy implemented by rural households in the study sites. The
following analysis not only compares the economic viability of different types of
activities, it also identifies which land tenure type is most effective in yielding economic
welfare. The results of the profit analysis will also allow us to link profitability to land
cover dynamics among land tenure categories.
Table 4-7 compares the profitability of crops, livestock, and timber and non-timber
forest products among the three tenure types. I calculated profit as gross income minus
total costs for a given activity for each tenure type. Profit thus indicates the monetary
gain or loss to households as a result of their economic decision-making in the context of
their land tenure category. Negative values indicate lost revenue in 2004, whereas
positive values constitute profits accumulated by households. F-tests indicate that
differences across sites were significant.
Table 4-7. Annual mean for profit for economic categories, by land tenure type, Acre,
Brazil, 2004.
All Chico Mendes Porto Dias Peixoto PC
Economic activity F-tests
(n=88) Resex (N=34) PAE (N=27) (N=27)
Crops (US$) -125.14 -219.87 -17.26 -102.17 12.383**
Livestock (US$) -96.45 -132.48 289.96 -213.31 3.597*
Non-timber (US$) -10.22 -33.36 255.64 -41.70 4.355*
Timber (US$) -870.51 --917.21 140.56 4.250+
Total (US$) -86.71 -122.54 56.52 71.83 12.729**
+p <.10; p<.05; ** p<.01
The results indicate negative incomes for all economic activities when considering
the three study sites as a whole. The total mean profit value was US$ 86.71, which
suggests that overall the households sampled incurred an economic loss in 2004. While
crops were the category of product with the weakest economic efficiency (-US$ 125.14),
non-timber forest products almost covered the costs of production (-US$ 10.22). Timber,
however, was the product with largest economic loss. These results indicate that
agricultural crops and timber emerge as the products with the lowest economic viability,
while non-timber forest products, although also showing a loss, nearly covered the costs
of production.
Nevertheless, when we consider profitability among the three study sites, the
Endings are more mixed. In examining the results by study area, the Peixoto PC and
Porto Dias exhibit net economic gains overall. Their total mean profit value suggests
some economic viability (US$ 71.83 and US$ 56.52 respectively). That said, the
activities that proved profitable varied among land tenure categories. While in Peixoto,
timber was the only profitable product, in Porto Dias, livestock and non-timber forest
products were the profitable activities. Crops and livestock were the categories with the
poorest economic performance among colonists, and livestock production was the second
least effective production within all the sites. Soil degradation may be a main factor
contributing to increased costs of these activities in this area. The excellent profitability
for timber extraction (US$ 140.56) in Peixoto in comparison to other activities is
explained by its low expenses, in which the costs are reduced via the frequent
involvement of local logging companies that pay for a certain amount of timber and
provide their skidder to harvest and transport the timber.
In contrast, the Chico Mendes Resex has the lowest economic viability in terms of
profitability. In great part, this poor economic performance is due to agricultural crop
production, which yielded considerable financial losses (-US$ 219.87). This might be
explained by the very high costs for forest clearing to establish swidden agriculture.
Rubber tappers still utilize very simple technologies in the form of machetes for clearing
forests, resulting in very high labor costs. Second, the costs of transport are an important
component of the total costs among rubber tappers, who on average reside in colocagdes
around 30 km from the city of Xapuri.
Production activities in Porto Dias PAE were also profitable overall. Although its
mean profit was inferior to that of the Peixoto PC, livestock and non-timber forest
products demonstrated their economic viability for rubber tappers in this area. However,
the total costs of timber management, as presented earlier, are so high that they greatly
exceed the total gross income from timber. Therefore timber management in this study
site compromises the overall economic success of these families.
Three groups of factors help explain this performance for Porto Dias. First,
although the average price per head of cattle (US$ 150.00) in this area was similar to the
price offered to colonist farmers of Peixoto, the rubber tappers of Porto Dias have not had
the problems with soil degradation found in Peixoto, thus reducing total costs. Second,
for non-timber forest products, rubber tappers in Porto Dias concentrated their efforts on
Brazil nuts, copaiba, and forest seeds, which are products with relatively high prices and
significantly lower production costs than rubber. Third, as pointed out earlier, the type of
timber forest management implemented in Porto Dias, which follows an entrepreneurial
management model, has resulted in high operational and implementation costs.
This section concludes my economic analysis in which I first compared gross
income across land tenure types and land uses. I also estimated how fixed, variable, and
total costs were distributed among products and across communities. Finally, I integrated
cost and income data into a profit analysis to evaluate the economic viability of each
productive activity across sites. While public polices favoring extrativist, agro-
extractivist, and colonist households have focused on intervention strategies to generate
cash income, the results of this study indicate that the high costs associated with many
activities severely limit their economic viability. Not only has the timber forest
management proj ect in Porto Dias shown inferior results due to high costs, but the
proj ect-driven agrosilvopastoral system in Peixoto has not yielded favorable economic
outcomes for colonists. In this context, non-timber forest products do marginally better,
almost reaching break-even, however, these activities are also unprofitable.
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EFFECTIVENESS OF EXTRACTIVE RESERVES, AGRO-EXTRACTIVE RESERVES AND COLONIST SETTLEMENTS IN SOUTHWESTERN AMAZONIA: AN ECONOMIC AND LAND COVER COMPARISON OF THREE LAND TENURE TYPES IN ACRE, BRAZIL By FRANCISCO KENNEDY ARAJO DE SOUZA A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLOR IDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2006
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Copyright 2006 by Francisco Kennedy Arajo de Souza
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To: my Apurinan indigenous people, my deceased grandmother Nadira Valuah, my mother Mada, and my daughter Yara.
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iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis was the result of many suppor ters, co-workers, friends, and community partnerships. First, I would lik e to express my sincere gratitu de to the rubber tapper and colonist families with whom I have collabora tively worked over the past eight years in the State of Acre, Brazil. Drivers, researcher s, and friends at the Federal University of Acre, Centro dos Trabalhadores da Amazni a (CTA), Group for Agroforestry System Research (PESACRE), and Acre government we re fundamental to generate the results presented in this thesis. Especially I tha nk my research assistants, Tatiana, Mrcio, Ernilton, Luciano, and Dermerson. I am also grateful for the financial suppor t provided by many organizations. First, I thank the Ford Foundation International Fellow ship Program for its funding my graduate studies at University of Florida. In Br azil Maria Luiza and Marcia, at the Fundao Carlos Chagas, were fundamental in suppor ting my first steps in the USA. I thank Gregory Marino for his institutional support at th e Institute of International Education in New York. I sincerely express my appreciati on to the Federal University of Acre for permitting me to pursue my graduate study. I sincerely thank the Tropical Conservation Development Program for its financial support du ring my last semester at the University of Florida. I also extend sp ecial thanks to the Woods Hole Research Center for supporting my fieldwork in Acre in 2004. Two government agencies in Acre, SEPROAF and IMAC, contributed with transport and Landsat images.
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v My supervisory committee was fundamental in my effort to complete this graduate course. First, I sincerely express my gratit ude to my chair, Dr. Stephen Perz, for his constant support, encouragement, patience, and friendship. I thank Dr. Charles Wood for understanding my English limitation during my first semester at UF. Moreover Dr. Wood was essential in advancing my statistical da ta analyses. I sincerel y thank Dr. Marianne Schmink for her friendship, patience, encour agement, and commitment in collaborating with the Amazonian people. I am especially indebted to Dr. Schmink for her support in one of the most critical moments of my life. Innumerable friends and co-workers suppor ted me before and during my studies, fieldwork, and the writing pro cess of my thesis. Valrio has been a unique friend who since my first steps in Gain esville has supported me with friendship, encouragement, ideas, and professional experience. Geraldo, like Marianne, became my kariu brother and sister after their important support during my cr itical phase in Gainesville. I thank Foster Brown, Daniel Nepstad, and Eduardo Br ondizio for their letters supporting my application to the Ford Foundation. I am gr ateful to Richard Wallace, Christiane Ehringhaus, Christie Klimas, Joanna Tuck er, Valrio, and Jeff for their support in reading, editing, and suggesting ideas in my th esis. I express my thanks to Wendy Lin for her support with my papers. I thank ma ny other friends: Diogo, Rodrigo, Charle Crisostomo, Silvia Brilhante, Nivia, Pedr o, Magna, Roger, Savio Maia, Edson Carvalho, Lira, Hulk, Marilene, Sumaia, Fadel, Ronei, Elaine, Andrea, and Leonardo. Finally, I express my gratitude to my pare nts and my brother and sisters for their examples of vigor and humanity. I am indebt ed to Yara, my daughter, for putting up with my long time far away from her.
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vi TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................................................iv LIST OF TABLES.............................................................................................................ix LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................................x ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... xi 1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................1 Research Objectives......................................................................................................2 Overview of the Research Sites....................................................................................3 Theoretical Framework.................................................................................................7 Methodology Summary..............................................................................................10 Study Significance: Local Research Needs on Land Tenure Analyses......................11 Structure of the Thesis................................................................................................12 2 LAND USE MANAGEMENT AND LAND TENURE DIVERSITIES: ECONOMIC BOOMS, State POLICI ES, AND LAND RIGHTS IN ACRE............15 Introduction.................................................................................................................15 Land Tenure Regimes in the Amazon Region............................................................16 The State of Acre: History, Social M ovements, and Land Tenure Diversity.............19 Geographic Context.............................................................................................19 Acre: Before the Ranchers...................................................................................21 Agriculture Modernization: Large Ca ttle Ranchers, Rubber Tappers, and Colonists..........................................................................................................22 After the 1990s: No Economic Boom but a Rubber Tapper Victory.................23 Acre: Social Movements, Community Land Tenures, and Forest-Based Development Policies............................................................................................25 Neoextrativismo : A Long-Term and Systemic Approach..................................27 Florestania : Citizenship Based on Regiona l Integration, Short-Term Economic Growth, and Conservation..............................................................29 Community Land Tenure: An Emergent Issue for Assessment in Acre....................31 Colonization Settlements (PC)............................................................................33 Extractive Reserves (Resex)................................................................................35 Agro-extractive Settlements (PAE).....................................................................36 The Study Sites...........................................................................................................37 Peixoto Colonization Settlement: The Agrosilvopastoral Model........................37
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vii Porto Dias Agro-extractive Settleme nt: The Timber Forest Management Model...............................................................................................................40 Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve: The Non-timber Forest Management Model...............................................................................................................42 Conclusion..................................................................................................................45 3 METHODS AND TECNIQUES FOR ECONOMIC AND REMOTE SENSING ANALYSES...............................................................................................................47 Introduction.................................................................................................................47 The Socioeconomic Survey........................................................................................49 Household Sampling...........................................................................................50 The Questionnaire...............................................................................................51 The Household Fieldwork...................................................................................52 The Price Survey.................................................................................................52 Participatory Findings Assessment: Attemp ts for Calibration and Validation...53 Land Cover Data Collection and Fieldwork...............................................................54 The Post-Survey: Data Processing and analysis.........................................................55 Household Economic Approach..........................................................................55 Economic Analysis..............................................................................................58 Land Cover Data Processing...............................................................................59 Economic and Land Cover Integration................................................................62 Conclusion..................................................................................................................62 4 ECONOMIC AND LAND USE COMPARISON OF SMALLHOLDER LAND TENURE MODELS IN THE STATE OF ACRE......................................................64 Introduction.................................................................................................................64 Revising the Research Questions................................................................................65 Land Cover Distributi on among Land Tenures..........................................................67 Accuracy Assessment of Land Cover..................................................................67 Comparing Land Cover among Land Tenures....................................................68 Economic Analysis for Land Tenures in the State of Acre........................................74 Gross Income.......................................................................................................74 General Cost Analysis.........................................................................................78 Cost Analysis at Community Level.....................................................................82 Profitability Analysis...........................................................................................85 Integrating Land Cover and Economic An alyses for Understanding Land Tenure...89 Conclusion..................................................................................................................96 5 CONCLUSIONS: DILEMMAS, IMPLIC ATIONS, AND FUTURE RESEARCH..99 Summarizing Key Findings......................................................................................100 Policy Implications...................................................................................................102 Emergent Questions for Community Land Tenure in Acre......................................105
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viii APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE USED IN THE CHICO MENDES EXTRACTIVE RESERVE.................................................................................................................107 B QUESTIONNAIRE USED IN THE PORTO DIAS AGRO-EXTRACTIVE SETTLEMENT.........................................................................................................122 C QUESTIONNAIRE USED IN THE PEIXOTO COLONIZATION SETTLEMENT.........................................................................................................137 D CIPEC TRAINING SAMPLE PROTOCOL............................................................151 LIST OF REFERENCES.................................................................................................155 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH...........................................................................................162
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ix LIST OF TABLES Table page 4-1. Accuracy assessment for 2004 supervised classification for the study sites in Acre, Brazil...............................................................................................................68 4-2: Land cover categories at household le vel, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil...................70 4-3. Descriptive statistics for land cover ca tegories, by land tenure type, Acre, Brazil, 2004........................................................................................................................... 72 4-4. Descriptive statistics for annual inco me, by land tenure type, Acre, Brazil, 2004.....75 4-5. Descriptive statistics for annual cost categories, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil, 2004........................................................................................................................... 79 4-6. Annual mean for cost categories, by land tenure type, Acre, Brazil. 2004................83 4-7. Annual mean for profit for economic categ ories, by land tenure type, Acre, Brazil, 2004........................................................................................................................... 86 4-8. Site model at land cover types, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil, 2004..........................91 4-9. Life cycle model at land cover types, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil, 2004................92 4-10. Market integration model at land cove r types, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil, 2004........................................................................................................................... 93 4-11. Investment model at land cover type s, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil, 2004.............94 4-12. Assets model at land cover types, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil, 2004....................96
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x LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 1-1. State of Acre Brazil, identifying col onizazation, agro-extractive and conservation areas.......................................................................................................................... ..4 1-2. Deforestation in the study sites, Acre, Brazil...............................................................6 3-1. Diagram of land cover processing in the study area, Acre, Brazil.............................60
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xi Abstract of Thesis Presen ted to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts EFFECTIVENESS OF EXTRACTIVE RESERVES, AGRO-EXTRACTIVE RESERVES AND COLONIST SETTLEMENTS IN SOUTHWESTERN AMAZONIA: AN ECONOMIC AND LAND COVER COMPARISON OF THREE LAND TENURE TYPES IN ACRE, BRAZIL By Francisco Kennedy Arajo de Souza May 2006 Chair: Stephen G. Perz Major Department: Latin American Studies Linking economic and remote sensing tec hniques, a comparison of an extractive reserve (Resex), an agro-extractive settlement (PAE), and a colonist settlement (PC) were conducted in the state of Acre, Brazil. Thes e land tenure categories were represented by Chico Mendes Resex, Porto Dias PAE, and Peix oto PC respectively. The datasets used in this research were constituted of three co mponents. First, socioeconomic data were gathered from 88 households in the th ree sites in 2004. Second, 442 GPS land cover samples were collected in 2004 and 2005. Third, I used ancillary data and Landsat TM 5, bands 1 through 5, scenes 67-001 and 67-002 for performing a supervised classification at community and household level within the three land tenures. Economic findings indicated that while fore st management was the more important activity among rubber tappers in the Resex and PAE, in Peixoto agrosilvopastoral strategies had little economic importance. However, high costs were related to all
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xii economic activities, especially timber fore st management. Moreover, non-timber forest products were more effective th an timber forest management. The land cover analysis indicated that extractive reserves and agro-extractive settlements are most effective to address c onservation. In comparison to PC lots that showed a mean of 36% of de forestation in 2004, selected colocaes in the Resex and PAE had a mean of 5% and 12% of deforest ation respectively. However, while pasture was the category that most contributed to de forestation in Peixoto and Porto Dias, crops were the most prominent cause of fore st clearing in the Chico Mendes Resex. An integrated analysis of economic and la nd cover data produced two main results. First, the multivariate models indicated that the establishment of extractive reserves and agro-extractive reserves may be an effici ent strategy to achieve conservation goals. However, this policy should be followed by st ate enforcement initia tives because the life cycle model addressed in this study suggested that more recent inhabitants tend to have a high propensity to deforest. This tendency ma y be increased if investment in roads is carried out. While this study is an initia l step in linking economic and land cover analysis at the household level, it may provide insights for the formulation of conservation policies in Acre where a comprehensive and innovative policy has been implemented since 1999. Core components of that policy include co mmunity forest management and sustainable land uses based on forest management and agrosilvopastoral pr oduction. Findings from this thesis will hopefully help establish new strategies for consolidating extractive reserves, agro-extractive reserves, and col onist settlements based on a new development model in Amazon.
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1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Community land tenures and their land uses in Amazonia have been the object of intensive debate, with su pporters (e.g., Schwartzman 1989, Allegretti 1990, Anderson 1990) and opponents (e.g., Homma 1989, Browde r 1990). While public policies in this region have focused on regional development mo dels based on private control of large tracts of land (e.g., ranchers, miners, and loggers), community land regimes have been considered economically unattractive. By the same token, forest and sustainable land uses have been criticized as an impediment to ec onomic growth (Hecht 1985). In contrast with these perspectives, over the past seven years, the government in the Brazilian state of Acre has made efforts to consolidate a po licy based on community based land tenure and sustainable land use strategies. In this context, it has been crucial to unde rstand and empirically assess the role that timber-forest management, non-timber forest management, and agrosilvopastoral systems have in providing subsistence revenue a nd income accumulation, within extractivist, agro-extractivist, and colonist communities The potential effects of these land use strategies for household livelihood systems and their implications for land cover change are not well-understood. Kaimowitz and Angels en (1998) argue that trained surveyors and time-consuming data collection are a ma in constraint for farm-level analyses. However, focusing on this type of study, some scholars (Carpentier et al. 2000, Tomich et al. 1998) have observed that rising cas h-incomes among small landholders in Amazonia has generated cha nges in their behavior.
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2 The economic efficiency of sustainable in itiatives, then, is expected to promote changes in natural resource use. Among sma llholders in Acre I have observed that increased income has contributed to the substitution of subsistence production by manufactured products. Families have focused their interests on higher priced products to meet their new needs. As a result, this comm only increases pressure on the forest to meet these demands. Although a broad range of issues are rela ted to community land use and land cover change in Amazonia, a question that emerged as central issue of this thesis is: which community land tenure is most effective in balancing economic and forest conservation goals? Almost 30 years after the most intens e and violent phase of land conflicts in Amazonia, this region has an opportunity to merge national and state policies into a common agenda for addressi ng economic growth guided by environmental conservation. This provides a rare opportunity to dete rmine whether areas managed by communities, such as extractive reserves, agro-extractive settlements and colonization settlements, can be a potential development model for the Amazon region. Research Objectives The goal of this thesis is to respond to the need for an empirical assessment of community land tenures as economic and envi ronmental conservation strategies in the Brazilian Amazon. This study responds to the emergent demand to understand the effects non-timber and timber forest management as well as agrosilvopastoral strategies in extractive reserves, agro-extractive settlements and colonist settlements in the state of Acre, Brazil. To address this issue, I used data sets from three community land tenure categories located in this stat e. The research objectives were threefold: 1) to compare economic and environmental conservation in three distinct land tenure categories
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3 designed to achieve different policy objectives ; 2) to economically evaluate non-timber and timber forest products in terms of their co st and benefits; and 3) to identify factors most important for forest clearing in three distinct land tenure types. Overview of the Research Sites The state of Acre is located in southwestern Amazonia and its 153,000 km2 of area was occupied by over 550,000 people in 1999 (Governo do Estado do Acre 2000a). It borders the Brazilian states of Rondnia and Amazonas a nd the tri-nati onal frontier known since 1999 as the MAP region, which al so includes the Bolivian State of Pando and the Peruvian state of Madre de Dios (Fig ure 1-1). Its territory still has almost 90% intact rainforest which contains diverse human and ecological mosaics with complex interactions at local and regional levels (Governo do Estado do Acre 2000a, Silveira et al. 1997). However, there is the possibility that th is landscape will be dr astically altered over the next few years. A coalition of Brazilia n, Peruvian, and intern ational organizations such as Inter-American Development Bank (ID B) is in the process of constructing and paving the Pacific Highway which would be one of the most important roads for transportation of commodities such as soybean s in South America. It may also increase the probability of environmental degradation as a result of logging, soybean expansion, and migratory movements (Carvalho et al. 2002). The state of Acre, located between a degraded area (arc of deforestation) and a region with less deforestation (Andean mount ains), exhibits impor tant community land tenure diversity. Rubber tappers, indigenous pe ople, and colonists, who have been the priority social groups for governance polic ies implemented since 1999, control almost 44% of the territory (Figure 1-1) (Governo do Estado do Acre 2000a). The future amount
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4 of deforestation as well as potential negative effects of the Pacific Highway will be strongly determined by land use decisi ons taking place in these communities. Three study areas located in Ac reÂ’s eastern region were se lected for this research based on three conditions: 1) they repres ented a community land tenure category: extractive reserve, agro-extractive settlem ents, and colonist settlements; 2) their inhabitants are addressing su stainable land uses based on timber management, non-timber forest management, or agrosilpastoral initi atives; and 3) they reflect public policies initiatives for sustainable land use. As a re sult of these criteria three land tenure types were selected. The Chico Mendes Reserve with almost one million hectares was the largest extractive reserve in Brazil until 2004. It is sub-divided into 45 rubber estates ( seringais ) Figure 1-1. State of Acre Brazil, iden tifying colonizazation, agro-extractive and conservation areas. BR-317 Pacific Highway Agro-extractive SettlementsConservation areas Colonization Settlements A MAZONAS ROND NIA Madre de Dios (PERU) Pando (BOLIVIA)
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5 and each has individual rubber tapper landholdings ( colocaes ). Three seringais, So Pedro, Palmari, and Floresta (Figure 1-2, A), we re selected. In this area, a coalition of organizations led by state government agencies have sought to amplify the range of nontimber forest products explored by local resi dents over the past 7 years. The National Center for the Sustainable Development of Traditional Populations (CNPT), a bureau under supervision of the Brazilian Institute for Environmental and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), is the governmental agen cy responsible for Re sexÂ’ administration in collaboration with rubb er tapper associations. Although the Porto Dias Agro-extractive Se ttlementÂ’s 22,000 hectares are occupied predominantly by rubber tapper families, it is administrated by the Brazilian Agency for Agrarian Reform (INCRA). There is no evident geographic division of seringais in this area. Rubber tapper landholdings are grouped in to three associati ons. The Porto Dias Rubber Tapper Association area (Figure 1-2, B) was selected for sampling. This area is one of the most important initiatives for timber management in Acre and has been supported by a pool of organizations led by th e Center for Amazonian Workers (CTA) to consolidate this activity as an ec onomic alternative for rubber tappers. The third area is the Peixoto Colonization Settlement, the largest and oldest human settlement area established by INCRA at the end of the 1970s (Figure 1-2, C). As with other colonist areas in the Amazonia, ag riculture and cattle are the main land use strategies in Peixoto. However, innovative experiments emerged at the end of the 1990s to address environmental de gradation and economic ineffi ciency. Since 1994, the Group for Agroforestry System Research (PESAC RE), a local NGO, has collaborated with members of the Grupo Novo Ideal rural association, a commun ity organization located in
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6 Peixoto, to combine agriculture, livestock, agro forestry, and forest management into an integrated agrosilvopastoral system. This co mmunity is the colonist sample for this thesis. Figure 1-2. Deforestation in th e study sites, Acre, Brazil. Deforestation 2004 Water Selected area Land tenure limite (A) Chico Mendes Resex (B) Porto Dias PAE (C) Peixoto PC (A) (B) (C) A C D
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7 Theoretical Framework The theoretical foundation of this work is guided by three bodies of literature. I draw on political ecology as a framework to integrate land reform in the Amazonia region and community land uses strategies as a dyna mic process taking place at multiple scales. This study seeks to understand local land use practices in the Amazon region as a result of events established in larger, extra-local political and economic se ttings (Peet and Watts 1996, Bryant and Bailey 1997). Linking politic al, economic, and cultural perspectives, this framework attempts to address a range of factors affecting use of natural resources as related to local, national, a nd global political economies and ecosystems (Blaikie and Brookfield 1987, Schmink and Wood 1987). Economic booms in Amazonia were a key aspect to take into consideration in this pe rspective. As a result of international demand, national and regional policies encouraged hum an migration, landownership regimes, and environmental depletion. These processes ar e examples of how underlying factors and political economies at multiple levels may affect socioeconomic and political dynamics at the community level in Amazonian region. Political ecology also constitutes a powerful framework for integrating natural and social dynamics (Peterson 2000). This cont ext is fundamental for understanding how community land tenure regimes in Amazonia were a result of underlyi ng social, cultural, environmental, economic, and political factors fr om a local to global s cale. In the case of Acre under the Forest Government, political processes yielded land tenure categories specially designed to produce more favorab le economic as well as environmental outcomes via more sustainable land use pr actices. Consequently, political ecology provides a basis for understanding the historic al context and political foundations for the land tenure categories on which I focus in this thesis.
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8 However, to empirically assess economic and conservation effectiveness of land use strategies in different communities, I decided to add two other bodies of literature: household economic analysis of land use ma nagement via a livelihoods approach; and explanations at various scal es for land cover change. Economic growth based on sustainable la nd use has commonly been held up as a blueprint for both conservation and human we llbeing. However, this research accepts Wollenberg et al. (2001)Â’s view that those income-g enerating activities may alter the social context, conservation behavior, and livelihood of local comm unities. This study attempts to comprehend rural smallholders as a complex of divers e livelihood activities (Ellis 2000). To explore this perspective for the land tenure categorie s selected in this work, two levels of analysis were conducted. First, the sustainable land uses practiced in the selected communities, have been under debate for over 30 years. Researchers of land use and forest economics in the 1980s and 1990s (Godoy et al. 1993, Peters et al. 1989, Pinedo-Vasquez et al. 1990, Nepstad and Schwartzman 1992, Padoch and Jong 1989) identified potential challenges and opportuni ties for these strategies. Second, in addition to their institutional, socio-cultural, and ec onomic diversities, inha bitants of extractive reserves, agro-extractive settlements, and col onist settlements are ty pified by the diversity of their livelihood systems. To achieve an economic and land use analysis, understanding the livelihood of each land tenure category emer ged as a key component to evaluate the effectiveness of community-based development in Amazonia. Although household farming, as argued by Elli s (2000), attempts to diversify the range of family activities as a strategy for maintaining their wellbeing, in the Amazon this decision may be also influenced by cultural behavior (Rego 1999). Household
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9 diversity, in this context, is problematic for empirical economic and social analysis. Hildebrand and Schmink (2004) ar gue that economic, social, and institutiona l factors in each livelihood system affect household economics, which have multiples consequences for land use allocation. This study uses livelihood analysis to understand how land cover and economic dynamics are affected by different land use re gimes. Based on differences in livelihood strategies among land tenure types, the in struments utilized during the fieldwork (questionnaire, participatory mapping, particip ant observation etc) we re adapted to each community. The economic findings discussed in th is thesis were summ arized in terms of inputs and outputs; however, for visualizing the household diversity in their livelihood systems, those findings were aggregated by ca tegories of land use (agriculture, livestock, forest management) that represent spatial la nd allocation (agriculture area, pasture, and forest), and are the result of allocation of available re sources (labor, resources, and capital). The third body of literature on which I draw is that addressing the causes and consequences of land use and land cover changes at multiple scales. Theories focusing on Amazonian deforestation have been dominate d by neoclassical economics and political ecology analyses; other studies have pointed to a combina tion of proximate causes and underlying drivers in a geographical and hist orical context (Geist and Lambin 2002). Yet, at the local level, i ndividual and social responses to land cover dynamics are affected by economic change led by institutional factors, in which new land use strategies are created by market and policies increasi ngly affected by regional and global factors (Lambin et al. 2001). Land cover and land use change, while affected by global and
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10 regional drivers, is particularly influen ced by individual micro-economic decision taking place at community level (Anselin 2001). Mertens et al. (2000) argued that integration of household survey and remote sensing information are an appropriate strategy to empirically understand the linkages and feedback s occurring at micro and regional levels. Methodology Summary This research involved multidisciplinary inqu iry at the three site s and multiple data collection methodologies including ground trut hing for classification of land cover classes, and quantitative analyses linking economic outcomes and forest cover dynamics at household level. Principal research me thods included semi-structured interviews, participant observation, vegetation samp ling, and remote sensing analysis. The economic survey at household leve l was carried out in 2004. I conducted interviews with 88 households in three land te nures located in AcreÂ’s southeast region. In order to evaluate the economic and land cover effects of sustainable land use strategies implemented by families, such as forest management and agroforestry systems, the sample was distributed as follows. In the Chico Mendes Resex I selected 34 families involved in management of various non timber forest products. In the Porto Dias agroextractive settlement the sample was 27 house holds. Peixoto colonization settlement was the third area, and had 27 small farmers selected. The set of interviews with those families was conducted from May through August of 2004 in collaboration with CTA, PESACRE, and governmental agencies. The land cover sampling took place during two time periods. In 2004 when I carried out the household surveys, I also collected 345 land cover GPS points in the selected household areas with f our research assistants. Ina ccuracy and confusion of the classification results in bamboo areas requi red additional ground-truthing in the summer
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11 of 2005 during which 97 additional land cover sa mples were gathered. These data were then utilized to perform a s upervised classification using Landsat images scenes 67-001 and 67-002 of 2004. Study Significance: Local Research Needs on Land Tenure Analyses This research is important for four main reasons. First, it provides a comparison of economic and land cover outcomes across multip le land tenure categor ies. Second, it will be crucial for implementation of policies in Amazonia, specifically in Acre where community land regimes are a foundation for alternative development based on sustainable land uses. Third, although land use and land cover change literature in the 1980-1990s focused on Amazonia, there is a lack of comparisons assessing the economic and conservation effectiveness of community initiatives based on timber and non-timber forest management, and agrosilvopastoral syst ems. Fourth, this study will contribute to the land use and land cover change literature by linking socioeconomic and satellite data analysis at household level. The first implication may be the most im portant for local stakeholders in Acre. Although the state government has been guide d by efforts to promote forest based development since 1999, it has al tered its policy approach over time. Policymakers have concentrated their efforts on establishing ec onomic alternatives for community areas of the Rio Acre watershed, a region with social, cultural, and ecological specificities, in which this study was conducted. In this terr itory, the governmental initiatives have addressed a combination of timber and nontimber forest management, agroforestry systems, as well as agriculture and cattle ranc hing zones as a strategy to increase the local welfare while emphasizing environmental c onservation. Over the next years, these
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12 community models will likely be replicated in other areas of the state (i.e. the Juru and Purus regions) which accounted for over 65% of the intact forests in the State in 1999. However, there is a lack of empirical studies addressing community land use. During various moments in Acre, policymaker s and social movements have called for research programs assessing these emergent issues. Cross comparison among community land use strategies should show whether th e forest-based initiatives addressed are effectively balancing economic growth and c onservation goals. Specifically this type of research will demonstrate the land cover a nd economic effects of state policy planning within extractive reserves, agro-extractive settlements, and colonist settlements. Structure of the Thesis This thesis is organized in five chapte rs. Chapter 2 gives an overview of the history, context, and status of commun ity-based development in Amazonia and specifically in the state of Acre. It intr oduces how economic booms, human migration, economic processes, and policy drivers aff ected land ownership and resource use at a regional scale. The chapter attempts to de monstrate that while community land tenure regimes were a result of regional and nationa l drivers, they were also produced by political and economic events conducted at global scale. Based on a political ecology perspective, this chapter argues that na tural resource appropri ation in Amazonia, including land, has been determined by social confrontations and alliances at multiple levels. While the 1970s included the most cr ucial rupture in the Amazonian economic system, during which a jump from forest-based development to an agricultural economy took place, this period was also notable fo r the establishment of innovative land reform led by rubber tapper movements. In the 1980s and 1990s new land tenure categories emerged as a result of social conflicts, economic changes, and policy implementation.
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13 They were also characterized by their institut ional and social differe nces, as well as the remarkable cultural distinction of their inhabitants. Chapter 2 also focuses on the study area a nd discusses why the State of Acre may be considered a space of rare opportunity to assess the effectiveness of community land tenure strategies based on sustainable land us e initiatives. The forest government efforts to build up an innovative regional model of public policy are also discussed in this chapter. The major objective of this chapter is to clarify the multiple land use strategies conducted by rural communities in this region and how their land rights were established over time. The historical, cultural, an d socioeconomic difference among these populations is addressed via a comparativ e analysis. A brief background of the study areas, which include the Chico Mendes Ex tractive Reserve, the Porto Dias Agroextractive Reserve, and the Peixoto Co lonization Settlement, is provided. Chapter 3 concentrates on the research design, field surveys, and remote sensing techniques as well as the economic framework ut ilized to perform the data analysis. This discussion addresses three key aspects. First, it shows how remote sensing and household surveys are combined for economic analysis of resource management, particularly land cover change. Second, it describes the resear ch design used in this study, in terms of economic and land cover comparisons between the three land tenure cat egories. Last but not least, it emphasizes the research innovati on achieved in this study by using satellite and socioeconomic data at a household leve l to compare multiple land tenure types in terms of their land uses. Additionally, Chapter 3 disc usses how the economic and land cover fieldwork was carried out. This chapter a) summarizes how the communities and households were
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14 selected; b) discusses the spatial and so cioeconomic techniques undertaken through the survey; and c) reviews the methodological appr oach for the economic and land cover data analyses. This is followed by a discussion of the participatory tools used, prior to economic analysis, to define indicat ors, field techniques, and sampling. Chapters 4 and 5 detail the results of this study and compare the three communitybased strategies. The economic outcomes at a household level are linked to their associated costs, and I evaluate their envi ronmental performance for addressing forestconservation. The analysis is divided into th ree parts. The first di scusses the land cover distribution across the three land tenure categories. The second focuses on economic analysis of costs and revenue to identify the most prof itable land tenur e and livelihood activity. Finally, the third part presents five multivariate regression models to evaluate the effects of economic and non economic variables on deforest ation among smallholders of the study sites.
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15 CHAPTER 2 LAND USE MANAGEMENT AND LAND TENURE DIVERSITIES: ECONOMIC BOOMS, STATE POLICIES, AN D LAND RIGHTS IN ACRE Introduction The purpose of this chapter is to summarize different land-tenure types in the State of Acre and differentiate the land use stra tegies associated with each type. This discussion starts by examining the larger context in which land tenure regimes developed in the Amazon region, in particular, how th e economic booms affected human migratory movement, livelihoods of rubber tapper populations, and by extension, land rights. Additionally, it introduces a few details of th e policy-land tenure regime interface that took place during three major landmark periods in AcreÂ’s history: the rubber booms (1870-1950), the era of cattle expansion (1970-19 80s), and the post-victory of the rubber tappersÂ’ movement (1990s to today). This di scussion introduces the main categories of land tenure in Acre and point s out central differences in their attempts to address economic and conservation goals. An overview of the study sites and description of their significance will also be provided. In contrast with many other studies in which an economic-environmental tradeoff analysis is undertaken, this chapter emphasizes why public policies are a key driver for land cover and land use change in Amazonia via a comparison of distinct land tenure types. This chapter concentrates on forest policy approaches impleme nted in Acre since 1999 in which rubber tappers and rural commun ities have been a key social actor. In addition, this chapter introduces the overall discussion of the circumstances in which
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16 different land tenure categorie s and resource management st rategies were established. Pointing out diverse contexts on how land te nure types emerged in Acre and their remarkable dissimilarities, I argue that extrac tive reserves, agro-extractive settlement, and colonist settlement projects played an im portant role in achieving an alternative development model. To begin the comparative analysis of differe nt land tenure regimes in this state, this chapter offers an overview of the historical and regional context in which land tenure regimes are situated. The discussion is orga nized as follows. First, a summary of the economic boom periods that took place in Amaznia will be provided. Second, the historical and geographical context in which community tenures emerged in the state of Acre will be identified. This discussion focu ses on two issues: 1) the struggle for land reform from the late 1970s to early 1990s; and 2) the gove rnment policies implemented in Acre since 1999 related to land tenur e communities. Third, differences among extractive reserves, agro-extractive settlements, and colonist settlements will be discussed. This section will also include a description of the three study sites, each representing one of th ese land tenure types. Land Tenure Regimes in the Amazon Region Land rights and land tenure in the Amazon have historically been influenced by complex connections among agents at global, national, and local s cales. Simmons (2004) emphasizes that while these dynamics have been defined by multiple agents, such as indigenous people, miners, loggers, ranchers and small farmers, a political-economic framework for land-tenure in the Amazon requires an understa nding of past processes. As a part of this discussion, this section offers an historical review of development policies of Amazonia and their implications for land distribution and land tenure implementation.
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17 Specifically it focuses on the cycles of ec onomic booms that took place in this region from the 19th century to the late 1980s. Three hist orical moments illustrate the interface between economic events and land tenure regimes. The first phase, from 1870s though the 1950s, was the rubber boom s period which took place in Amazonia in the middle 19th century and again in the 1940s and early 1950s. Demand from pneumatic tire factories in Europe and the U.S. motivated the Brazilian government to move thousands of rural workers from the northeast region to the north of Brazil to meet labor demand. The arrival of northeastern people in Acre was an important starting point for establishment of the local society. Rubber tappers emerged in this period as a social group forced to de pend on forest resources for their subsistence. The rubber booms, however, also fostered crucial socioeconomi c changes in this region. Thousands of indigenous people died or were expelled from their land by large rubber estate owners ( seringalistas ), the new landowners in the Amazon region (Melatti 1993). While during the first rubber boom (1870-1910) the economy was based on the semi-slavery aviamento system1 (Weinstein 1983), duri ng the second boom (1940-1950) the state assumed economic and social contro l of the rubber-based economy (Martinello 1988). During a brief rubber boom in the Second World War when Malaysian areas were controlled by the Japanese military, blocking AmericaÂ’s access to rubber, the category of autonomous rubber tappers2 became more evident (Oliveira 1985, Bakx 1988). In spite its 1 The semi-slavery aviamento system was a coalition of seringalistas Brazilian state, and national and international companies to implement the rubber economy in the 19th century in the Amazon region. 2 Autonomous rubber tappers refer to circumstance of relative freedom of rubber tappers in managing their colocaes This situation was launched in the late 1910s, when external interference over the resources in the colocaes from state or seringalista became reduced. As a result, agriculture and livestock emerged as new activities worked by rubber tappers for their subsistence.
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18 shortness, the four year s (1942-1945) of rubber demand stimulated some economic recovery. A new migratory movement3 was then stimulated by the Brazilian government to Amazonia, particularly to its Western region, the area with th e largest population of rubber trees. The second phase, from the 1960s through 1970s came with the decline of international demand for Amazonian rubber. The forest economy, which had been represented by the rubber tree, was substituted by a new development model based on cattle and crops. This economic change was fo llowed by large-scale state investments in infrastructure such as roads, dams, and mi nes, and subsidy progr ams to modernize the Amazonian economy (Cardoso and Mller 1977). On the other hand, at a micro-scale, the land tenure regimes were also transformed from seringais to large cattle ranches. At the same time, rubber tappers engage d in defending their landholdings ( colocaes ), even as some rubber tappers migrated to urban areas. The fall in the price of rubber re sulted in the bankruptcy of many seringalistas and contributed to important ch anges in the rubber tapper Â’ s livelihood system. As a result of more flexible social control, hundreds of rubber tappers became more independent and were able to introduce new econom ic activities into their land use strategies such as slash and burn agriculture, livestock, hunting, and harv esting of forest products. It is notable, then, that the rubber tappersÂ’ relative free dom fundamentally altered their level of 3 This strategy was addressed by Br azilian government to face the lack of a labor force to exploit rubber trees. State advertising was carried out to stimulate a new migratory movement of people from the Northwest, this time called rubber soldiers ( soldados da borracha ), to the Amazon. Oliveira (1985) noted that over 50,000 migrants from that poor Brazilian region were engaged on the rubber economy in AcreÂ’s jungle. Yet, as pointed out by Sobrinho (1992), different from previous cycles, the rubber economic system was controlled by the state which monopolized the co mmercialization process and the control of rubber tappers in the seringais
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19 subsistence, even as they continued to focus on rubber as their main cash income activity (Oliveira 1985). These changes prompted rubber tappers to mobilize to defend their land rights Consciousness-raising, facilita ted by worker unions, was a key element influencing the land struggle that took place through an economic transition from forest-based land use to cattle ranching launched in the 1960s. In th is context, the st ruggle for land of during this period was characterized by social coalitions between workers and regional organizations in order to pressure the State for land reform in the region. Land tenure policies implemented during th is period were complicated by the governmental plan to integrate the Amazon by roads to other Brazili an territories. Human migration was encouraged though colonization settlements which were established in areas surrounding regional highw ays, such as Transamaznica, Cuiaba-Santarem, BelmBraslia, and Rio Branco-Braslia. As a result land conflicts between rubber tappers, colonists, and large cattle ranchers became mo re visible in Amazonia. However, intensity of land conflicts varied among the Amazonian st ates as a consequenc e of local policies, social coalitions, and the influence of nati onal policies. In the following section I will focus on the case of Acre. In particular, I wi ll concentrate on the importance of social movement, led by rubber tappers to foster land reforms. The State of Acre: History, Social M ovements, and Land Tenure Diversity Geographic Context AcreÂ’s 153,000 km2 is occupied by over 550,000 people (Governo do Estado do Acre 2000a) and is bordered by the Brazilian states of Rondnia and Amazonas and by a trans-national frontier constituted by the Bolivian state of Pando, and the Peruvian state of Madre de Dios (Figure 1-1). Its territory is still constituted by almost 90% intact
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20 rainforest with diverse human and ecological mosaics with complex interactions at local and regional levels. Although this state has been cited as a rich region of palms (Daly and Silveira 2001) and important diversity of other species of plan ts, habitats, and soil (Governo do Estado do Acre 2000b), due to the e normous lack of scientific knowledge of its ecology, the degree of its biodiversity is likely underestimated (MMA 2001a, Silveira et. al 1997). Besides its biological divers ity, approximately 44% of its territory is occupied by smallholders such as extrac tivist inhabitants, indigenous people, and colo nists (Governo do Estado do Acre 2000a, Figure 1-2) who have implemented a range of land use strategies such as timber and non-timber fo rest management, annual and perennial crops, and cattle and other livestock. In 1996, less than 30% of Acre ’s total deforestation was located within community areas.4 Therefore, Acre’s future conservation will be affected by land use decisions of these communities. Community land tenure regimes in Acre were the result of intensive social conflicts that took place in the past. Social movement s and rubber tapper strategies, such as the “ empate movements5 were fundamental to influence la nd reforms in this State. These rural workers assisted by various organi zations from local to international level contributed to making this re gion renowned worldwide in the 1980s. In order to provide 4 This assessment was performed using data available through the Macap Seminar, a meeting organized by the Brazilian government in 1999, in which Brazilian ho tspots for conservation and sustainable uses were identified. I utilized ArcView to process raster and vector files and Erdas Imagine to merge raster and vector files. I then calculated deforestation within each land tenure type (see MMA 2001 for details about the data). 5 The empate movements were a form of collective resist ance conducted by rubber tappers against deforestation. The name was conceived based on the Portuguese word “ empatar ” (to prevent). These actions were usually carried out in the summer season, the moment in which large cattle ranchers cut the forest. During these initiatives rubber tapper leaders fi rstly tried to convince farm laborers to desist cutting down the forest. If they were not su ccessful to stop the deforestation, th en they organized themselves in line (children, women, and men) to protect the forest.
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21 an overall context in which t hose community land tenures we re created, in the following section I move to AcreÂ’s history. Specifi cally I will focus on how social movements emerged and demanded land reform and the establishment of new categories of land tenure types such as extractive reserves (Res ex) and agro-extractive settlements (PAE). This discussion will be divided into three parts. First, I summarize the period prior to cattle raising in the 1970s. S econd, I discuss the period of la rge-scale cattle ranching and land conflicts from the 1970s to the 1980s. Thir d, I focus on the rubber tapper victory in the 1990s when extractive reserves and agro -extractives settlements were created. Acre: Before the Ranchers The end of the rubber boom in 1945 contri buted to the collapse of the Acrean economy, and also resulted in the emergence of new and important soci al actors. Oliveira (1985) and ELI (1994) poi nt out that the crisis of rubbe r had two related consequences for land property regimes in Acre. On the one hand, some of the seringalistas went bankrupt and abandoned their rubber estates. On the other hand, rubber tappers reacted differently to this collapse, though in diverse ways. One group of rubber tappers, like some seringalistas, grew discouraged with rubber tapping and migrated to urban areas in Acre or to other Brazilian states. Another large number of rubber tappers remained under the seringalistas Â’ oppressive control that used jagunos (mercenaries) to prohibit agriculture and other subsistence activities in the colocaes (landholdings). Within these areas, the n, no change was observed in terms of social control, landownership, and rubber tappersÂ’ livelihood. And third, a more significant transformation, which has also been noted by Bakx (1988), took place among rubber tappers, who, as a consequence of the abandonment of rubber estates by
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22 seringalistas were able to manage their land a nd their resources according to their particular interests. These socioeconomic changes took place among the third group of rubber tappers contributed to the establishment of new land use strategies within seringais while also providing the social context for the emerge nce of a new category of rubber tapper. Conscious of their land rights, for the first time since their arrival in this territory, they organized themselves against ranchers, the stat e, and the judicial system to demand rights to their lands. This period was an important landmark in Acre’s history in which an economic rupture emerged while also bringing intensive land conflicts. Agriculture Modernization: Large Cattle Ra nchers, Rubber Tappers, and Colonists The period from the 1970s through the 1990s was the most crucial phase of Acre’s history in terms of social c onflicts, land tenure regimes, polic ies, and economic strategies. These striking social and political changes and their implications for development and land use have been noted by various schol ars (e.g., Oliveira 1985, Esteves 1999, and Paula 2003) as the moment of substitution of forestry harvesting by agriculture and pasture economies. This time period was ma rked by the polarization between forest resource use by rubber tapper communities a nd traditional models based on crops and cattle expansion. The crops and cattle economic model implem ented in Acre in the early 1970s was led by the Wanderley Dantas. At that moment the governmental slogan was to “produce in Acre, invest in Acre, and export via the Pa cific” (Silva 1990) which meant to integrate this state into the emergent Brazilian ag ribusiness economy. Based on cattle, a ranching coalition constituted by local and national polit icians, the board of judges, state police,
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23 and large ranchers emerged to establish a new land tenure policy to benefit large landowners.6 In terms of the ownership configuration of Acre’s territory, this period represented a transition from seringais to large scale cattle farms. In addition, this phase was characterised by social polarization between traditional populations (rubber tappers and indigenous people) and large cattle ranchers. The struggle became more intense when the “ paulistas ”, which included ranchers from the South, Central and Southwest of Brazil, arrived in Acrean territory and encount ered a large resident population of posseiros, or autonomous seringueiros, that acquired their rights over the rubber estates when they were abandoned by seringalistas. The “ empate movement” was the main strategy utilized by rubber tappers to prevent deforestation as well as to demand their land rights. After the 1990s: No Economic Boom, but a Rubber Tapper Victory The transition from forest-based prod uction to a cattle ranching and land speculation economy was followed by a violen t struggle within Acre. Sobrinho (1992) points out that from 1975 thr ough 1988 in Brasilia and Xapuri7 400 rubber tappers were imprisoned and 40 others killed or tortured. Both rubber tappers a nd ranchers organized themselves as social movements. In mid1985, large cattle ranchers created the ‘Rural Democratic Union (UDR)’ with two main goals : 1) to influence national policies in the interests of agri-business, for instance, by strengthening subsidie s, credit, and road 6 Mesquita (1977) estimated that from 1971 through 1975 over five million hectares, that is, almost one third of Acre’s territory, were tran sferred to new owners. Commonly, emphasizes this author, the land was occupied by rubber tappers who were forced to migrate to urban poor areas. 7 Xapuri and Brasilia are two municipalities located in South Acre region. Since the economic transition to cattle ranching in the 1970s they became one the most important areas of both land conflicts and rubbertappers movement against roads and defore station (see FASE 1989 and Allegretti 1989).
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24 building; 2) to lead legal and many times vi olent efforts against smallholders, untitled occupants, and indigenous people in Amazonia. As a response, at the end of 1985, rubber-t appers organized their first national meeting in Braslia, the capital of Brazil. This event was supported by the National Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (INESC) the Brazilian Department of Culture, and Oxfam, an international organization. At th at moment, they created the National Rubber Tappers’ Council (CNS). With na tional and international suppor ters they also advocated the creation of Extractive Rese rves (Resex) as a pioneering land-reform measure within Amazonia intended to maintain its natural re sources and also provi ding rubber tappers with long-term rights to land. Further strengthening this movement, by late 1988, indigenous people, rubber tappers, and ribeirinhos joined their voices in one of the strongest collective actions in the Amazon. In Acre they built a co alition under the name of the ‘Forest Peoples Alliance’. The large ranchers reaction, however, was extremely violent with the shooting of Chico Mendes, one the most prominent rubber tapper leaders in Amaz onia, in the late 1988. Although the 1980s period was one the most violent periods of Acre’s history, it also created an opportunity for new leader s who argued for a new development plan based on forest use and sm allholders’ land rights. As a consequence, land tenure policies took th eir first steps toward land reforms. In 1989 the Brazilian government created four ag ro-extractive reserv es in areas with intensive land-conflicts in the State of Acre: So Luiz do Remanso, Santa Quitria, Macau, and Cachoeira. In 1990, the Alto Ju ru Extractive Reserve was established, the first one in Amazonia, with more than 506,000 hectares. The same year, the Chico
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25 Mendes Reserve, the largest Braz ilian extractive reserve until 20048, with almost 1 million hectares, was formed. Chico Mendes’ murder led to the creation of seven other extractive reserves in five Brazilian states by 1992. Chico Mendes’ le gacy was revitalized in 1998, when the Workers Party won Acre’s gubernatorial elec tion, establishing a bridge among policy, social movements, and agents managing dive rse land tenures. In the following section I discuss the innovative public policies implemented in th e State of Acre since 1999. Specifically I focus on the effects of gove rnmental initiatives for community land tenures. Acre: Social Movements, Community Land Tenures, and Forest-Based Development Policies In this section I will summarize recent publ ic policies implemented in Acre, which have attempted to establish a forest-based development model, and their implication for land tenure regimes. Particularly, I will con centrate on the efforts of the Acre government to foster alternative policies in community land tenures areas since 1999. The triumph of the forest-based development led by Jorge Viana, a forester who worked as a technical adviser for rural comm unities in the 1980s, led to the establishment of a development model based on sustainabl e use of natural resources. The “forest government” slogan became a key concept whic h suggests the Acre territory could be developed based on land te nure rights and land uses strategies of extrac tivists, colonists, and indigenous people. In addition to the fact that many of thes e policymakers worked closely with local communities over the past 10 years, two factor s help explain why the forest government 8 The largest Brazilian extractive reserve is the Verde para Sempre with 1.3 million hect are. It was created in 2004 and is located in the State of Para.
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26 concentrated much of its atten tion on the spatial dist ribution of land tenure regimes. First, although the legal status of a large portion of land was not precisely known, the type of landowners and their location and land use prac tices were recognized in AcreÂ’s territory. Second, different from the previous governor Viana attempted to implement a policy taking into consideration the economic voca tion of the population of each land tenure category. Thus, economic and ecological zoning (ZEE)9 emerged as a strategic instrument for state planning, territorial management, and policy implementation. Based on the ZEEÂ’s results, four major ca tegories of land tenures types were identified in the state territory (Figure 12). The first one, covering almost 35% of the territory, is characterized by colonization settlements, agro-extractive settlements, extractive reserves, and indigenous reserves The second accounts for approximately 15% of AcreÂ’s area and is comprise d of national and state parks, and other conservation areas. Third, areas under INCRAÂ’s control, which s hould be utilized for human settlements, correspond to approximately 7% of the stateÂ’s ar ea. Lastly, the largest area of the state is in the hands of privat e landowners (mainly large cattle ra nchers) who control almost four million hectares or 26% of AcreÂ’s territory. There is, however, a large extent of land without any immediate land tenure discrimi nation, covering over 22% of the territory. Although these community land tenures have been a key to the forest government, its policies have been altered from VianaÂ’s first term of office ( 1999-2002) to the second (2003-2006). Based on my personal experiences sp eaking with diverse local stakeholders, I have identified four major differences between the first and the second of VianaÂ’s term s of office which could affect economic a nd land cover dynamics within land tenure 9 The ZEE is an important policy instrument for terr itorial management in which the state integrates economic, social, and environmental studies as el ements for subsidizing societyÂ’s decisions.
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27 regimes in Acre. First, while the first te rm of office emphasized non-timber forest strategies, during the second mandate, timber management has been a priority. Second, through 1999-2002 the government attempted to establish a forest model based on a diversity of land use strategies addressed by fo rest inhabitants (rubber tappers, indigenous and colonist). Third, the rela tionship between state and fe deral government was altered when Luis Incio Lula da Silva was elected president of Brazil in 2003. Since this period considerable infra-structure investments have been carried out in Acre to integrate it to the Peruvian region. These in itiatives may have unknown effe cts for forest conservation and community land tenures. Lastly, as policymakers have implemente d a model oriented by market demands (e.g., timber and cattle) since 2003, strategies for increasing the competitiveness of forest strategies have become a key economic priori ty in the second term. During this period, macro-investments (e.g., road building, ener gy, and logging company incentives) were more encouraged than community-based initiatives (e.g., coop eratives and rural association subsidies). Overall, while the first mandate was based on the neoextrativismo approach, the current term of office has been called florestania In the following section I will summarize each of these approaches. Neoextrativismo : A Long-Term and Systemic Approach Neoextrativismo was conceived by Rego (1999), an agricultural economist at the Department of Economics at the Federal Univer sity of Acre, almost four years prior to the election of the Acre forest government. This concept emerged primarily as a response to critics of community extractivism im plemented in Amazonia. Homma (1993), who was one of the most ardent critics, argued that extractivism was not feasible as a regional development model. After the Workers Party (PT) victory, Rego beca me the Secretary of
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28 Production and one of the most important pol icymakers in the forest government from 1999 through 2002. Thus, neoextrativismo during this period, wa s consolidated as an element for integrating economic, social, and en vironmental sustainability in land tenure policies in Acre. Neoextrativismo incorporated five inseparable aspects into community land tenure development. First, neoextrativismo took into consideration the cultural behavior of local residents. Second, it was conceived to cons ider community liveli hood systems and their implications for land use and land cover ch ange. Third, it addressed community as a means of balancing economic and ecological goa ls for policy. Fourt h, it argued that any technology for sustainable land use should be ad apted to local inhabitants. Finally, the neoextrativist approach emphasizes that policies addressing sustainability will only be successful when smallholders are able to dive rsify their systems, for instance, combining agroforestry, forest manageme nt, agriculture, and livestock. Despite its original and systemic overview of the socio-ecologi cal diversities and its suggestions for establishing innovative pub lic policies in the Amazonia, few studies have assessed this approach. Kainer et. al (2003) point out that fo r the first time in the Amazonia, an integrated policy framework regarding the local ecological, cultural, economic, and social diversities was articulated via neoextrativismo Maciel (2003), an economist at the Federal University of Acre assessing the Islands of High Productivity (IAPs)10 as a component in the neoextrativist strategy, estimated that it should increase 10 Islands of High Produtividade (IAPs) were conceived by Kageyama (2002) as a strategy to increase rubber production in the rubber tappers livelihood sy stem in Amazonia. This experiment was implemented in Acre, through which rubber tappers were stimulated to plant rubber trees within deforested areas and bordered by neighbour forestry diversity. In some ways IAPs were very similar to agroforestry systems. The IAPs, while conceived as a neoextrativist model incorporated three di mensions: economic (economic growth with rubber productivity); social (rubber tappers usually worked collectively to implant those experiments); cultural (rubber threes have been the main activity for rubber tappers over the past 30 years);
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29 rubber tappers gross income by 400% as a consequence of a reduction in labor requirements. These results indicate that the neoextrativismo approach attempts to incorporate livelihoods into a publ ic policy agenda, while also poi nting to the fact that the transition from traditional development to fo rest based development could require a longterm process. However, while alternative la nd uses suggested by this approach such as the implementation of agroforestry systems w ith brazil-nuts require almost 30 years to yield, the government mandate in Brazil is limite d to four years. This fact contributed to a new public policy approach after 2002 in Acre which I will discuss in the next section. Florestania : Citizenship Based on Regional Integration, Short-Term Economic Growth, and Conservation In 2002 Viana again won AcreÂ’s election in a new national context. When Lula da Silva, a close friend of Chico Mendes in th e 1980s, took power as president of Brazil, Marina Silva, who was a rubber tapper in Acre during her chil dhood, was selected by Lula to take the position of S ecretary of the Ministry of th e Environment. Moreover, after almost three years of negotiations, the Inte r-American Development Bank (IDB) financed the Acre Sustainable Development Program through which the state received US$ 250 million in loans for supporting its forest-based initiatives. These new macro factors were fundamental in changing state planning in Acre. While during its first phase, the forest gove rnment was characterized by attempting to consolidate a development model based on community land tenures and land uses, VianaÂ’s second term has attempted to estab lish Acre as a regional model for the Amazon. Neoextrativismo which focused on micro-scale and long-term socioeconomic outcomes, was substituted by florestania as a new agenda for the state policies. The florestania environmental (it should to contribute for forest re generation); and political (AcreÂ’s government in 1999 incorporated this initiative into the local public policies).
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30 approach moved to publicize Acre as an economically efficient Amazonian development model that has attempted to integrate both urba n and rural populations as beneficiaries of sustainable forest use. Florestania has incorporated two perspectives into forest-based development implemented in Acre over the past six y ears. First, this concept was founded on the principle of universal human rights, including the citizenship rights of forest peoples. Second, VianaÂ’s policymakers also include d an environmental component within citizenship. In this perspective, forest -based development could produce economic growth to overcome social inequali ties via environmental conservation. The context of these efforts is manifested in the IDB Project, the largest program implemented by the government during its seco nd mandate. The IDB projectÂ’s short-term goals are the promotion of economic growt h, environmental sustainability, and local economic diversification (IDB 2002). To implem ent its actions, this program was divided into three sub-programs: a) sustainable fo rest management, conservation, and state enforcement; b) employment, technology dissemination, and community-based subsidies; and c) infra-structure investments in roads, rivers, and energy ge neration (BID Project 2002). The IDB program inaugurates a new pha se in Acre in which forest based initiatives were incorporated into a context of regional integration. A range of complementary endowments has been mobilized by the forest government in order to implement its macroplanning. Besides IDB, Acre has also been supported by the Brazilian government and the Corporacin Andina de Fomento (Andean Corporation for Development) with approximately US$ 640 million for
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31 implementing investments in infra-structure public services, economic subsidies, and other economic initiatives by 2006 (SEPLANDS 2005). While addressing regional in tegration, the Acre government has also continued to encourage land use strategies employed in co mmunity land tenure regimes. In this new phase, however, emergent demand for forest pro ducts and the need to show the success of this development model have forced policym akers, along with nati onal and international organizations, to place greater focus on econom ic rather than cons ervation goals within communities. Although the long-term impli cations of this policy approach for socioeconomic development and land cover is still not clear, so me economic growthdeforestation tradeoffs such as in cattle raising and logging have been observed. Initiatives for regional inte gration implemented during the florestania period have generated new concerns about the conti nued viability of community land tenures models designed in the early 1990s to achieve economic, social, and environmental goals. I will now move toward the third part of this chapter, which focuses on three land tenure types present in the state of Acre: extr active reserves, agro-extractive settlements, and colonist settlements. It will be divided into two parts. Fi rst, an overall description of those land tenures types will be provided w ith an emphasis on differences in their economic and environmental outcomes. Second, three specific study sites focused on this thesis are described. Community Land Tenure: An Emergen t Issue for Assess ment in Acre The largest portion of the Acre governmentÂ’s actions has been concentrated in the Rio Acre watershed region. Both economic integration through the Pacific, and community-initiatives such as within the Ch ico Mendes Reserve, colonist settlements, and agro-extractive settlement s are located in this area. In addition, this region holds
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32 approximately 71% of AcreÂ’s total populat ion and almost 56% of the total rural population (Governo do Estado do Acre 2000a). The Rio Acre region also accounts for 83% of the total deforestation in the St ate (FUNTAC 1999). Although only 37% of this region remained as forested area as of 1996, the largest percent of these forest areas (87%)11 was located within community land tenures of extractive reserves, agroextractive settlements, indigenous land, and co lonization settlements. Almost 70% of all colonist and rubber tapper families of the st ate of Acre are living in the Rio Acre watershed region. These characteristics make the Rio Acre watershed in eastern Acre a crucial area to assess the effectivenes s of community land tenures models. While agricultural smallholders have been pointed out as key agents for forest clearance (Angelsen 1995, Godoy, Jacobson, and Wilkie 1998), in Acre, they are regarded as agents for promoting conserva tion. On the one hand, extractive reserves and agro-extractives reserves have been advocated as an ideal model to address human needs through the harvesting of forest products (Allegretti 1990, Murrieta and Rueda 1995). New land use strategies, such as agroforestry and forest management, have also been argued as strategies for col onist settlements to reduce deforestation and bring economic gains (Menezes 2004). On the other hand, while the long-term effectiveness of extractivist models has been questioned (Homma 1993), recent studies have identified the tendency for increasing deforestation with in these land categor ies (Sassagawa 1999, Gomes 2001, Lorena 2003). Although community land tenures and their associated land use strategies have had diverse evaluations, they became key component s in AcreÂ’s policies. Understanding land 11 This estimation was performed through vector file s processing with ArcView. The datasets were available by ecological and econom ic zoning of the Secretary of En vironment of the State of Acre.
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33 ownership in this state as well as key factor s associated with resource use management activities are fundamental step s to evaluate the effectiv eness of community managed areas to bring economic growth with e nvironmental conservation. I will therefore summarize the main differences among three major categories of community land tenures existent in the state of Acre. Colonization Settlements (PC) Estimates regarding the number of colonist farmers in the State of Acre range from 15,000 to 23,000 families (Governo do Acre 2000a, IBGE 1998) and their territories cover between 1.4 and 1.6 millions hectares (INCRA 1999). The creation of these settlements had three major goals: 1) to stim ulate human occupation of AcreÂ’s territory; 2) to establish agricu lture and cattle as a hegemonic model for economic growth; and 3) to reduce social demand through agrarian refo rm from small farmers of south, central and southwestern Brazilian regions (Cavalcanti 1994). The largest num ber of colonists, known as sulistas settled in Acre beginning in the late 1970s, and had extensive experience working with annual and perennial crops as well as livestock. These economic strategies contributed to th eir relatively good socioeconomic conditions (e.g., Cavalcanti 1994, Menezes 2004), but this has been c ounterbalanced by the large amount of deforestation, landowner turnove r, and soil degradation asso ciated with colonization areas. Colonists were stimulated by INCRA to deforest their lands to implement agriculture and cattle pasture areas. In f act, this was facilitated by the livelihood background of these families, largely base d on shifting cultivation systems. Although accelerated urbanization created a local ma rket for crops there has also been landownership turnover among households of colonization areas (Cronkleton 1998).
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34 As pointed out by Rego (2003), cattle are th e main economic activity for colonist farmers located in the Acre River watershed. His analyses show that in 1997, 63% of the households in colonist areas commerciali zed cattle contributing over 30% of total income. Cattle expansion has been a common characteristic among colonist families (Menezes 2004) and may stimulate landowners to obtain new land for pasture establishment. Land concentra tion and migratory movements ha ve been related to this process. Moreover, negative social conseque nces (such as migration and land conflicts) and negative environmental outcomes (such as continuing deforestation) are anticipated. Among community land tenure regimes, colonist farmers are key actors contributing to deforestation in Acre. Using da ta available from the Brazilian Ministry of Environment, I estimated that by 1996, approxima tely 30% of the total deforested area in Acre was located within colonization settlements, while extractive reserves, state, and national parks contributed less than 5%12. Based on the same dataset, I estimated that 37% of colonization areas were deforested by 1996 which was superior to the 20% of deforestation permitted by Brazilian law to all rural properties in Amazonia13. Taking into consideration that cattle and crops ha s been the main economies for colonists in Acre, deforestation could still be increased in this areas. 12 See footnote 4 for details of how this amount was estimated. 13 The Federal Decree No. 2166/01 that altered the La w No. 4771/1965 (Forestry Law) establishes that small and large farmers in Amazon region are permitted to cut down until 20% of forest within their land plots.
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35 Extractive Reserves (Resex) Currently, there are two Resex in Acre covering almost 10% of the stateÂ’s territory14 (Governo do Acre 2000a). Rueda (1995) argues that the demand for Resex in Acre emerged as ecological, economic, and soci o-cultural dimensions of land rights. The ecological perspective is explained by the im portance of the forest in the rubber tapper livelihood, without which there could be no ex tractivism. Under th at circumstance the possession of land would not be important fo r rubber tappers. The economic dimension of the Resex model implies that land con cession was a mechanism for guaranteeing longterm survival of rubber tappers and their fa milies. Lastly, the ResexÂ’s socio-cultural dimension argued for the rubber tapp ersÂ’ right to be extractivists. The incorporation of these dimensions in to the Resex proposal was a result of an intensive struggle led by the rubber tapper movement to consolidate a model of land reform in the Amazon based on the livelihood sy stem of local inhabitants. Rubber tappers developed a forest-based livelihood system, in cluding consumption from the gathering of wild foods, hunting, medicinal plants, and cas h income from non-timber forest products. As a land tenure regime, Resex are characterized by being occupied by families who combine indigenous agriculture, livestock, and forest activities in their land use strategies. Since their creation in the early 1990 s, Resex resource management has concentrated on non-timber forest products. Although rubber has not had an attractive market, rubber tappers have continued to harves t this product. Over the past seven years, 14 The state government may create thr ee additional extractive reserves which may increase the total area to over 2,000,000 ha or approximate 15% of the territory (Governo do Acre 2000b). These new planned Resexs would be located in the Juru River watershed.
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36 however, stimulated by local policies, many ot her non-timber forest products were added to the range of commercial pr oducts explored by rubber tappers families, such as copaiba oil ( Copaifera ssp ), murmuru nuts ( Astrocaryum murumuru), unha de gato ( Uncaria tomentosa ), and aa ( Enterpe oleraceal ). Agro-extractive Settlements (PAE) Agro-extractive Settlements (PAE)15 comprise approximately 194,000 hectares and have an estimated population of 1,050 families in Acre (Governo do Acre 2000a). This category of land tenure was also a response of the Brazilian government to reduce land conflicts, as well as deforesta tion, in Amazonia. The agro-ext ractive settlement (PAE) is an intermediate category of land tenure between Resex a nd colonization settlements. PAEs were initially conceived in 1987 as an alternative solution for Resex demands and also as an immediate response from the Brazili an state for reducing land conflicts in the Amazon region. Different from the extrac tive reserves, PAEs, like colonization settlements, are regulated by INCRA. However, their population is largely constituted by rubber tappers who have implemented a land use system very similar to ResexÂ’ families. Indeed, as a consequence of their institu tional flexibility and proximity of their population to colonist practices, the timber management projects, which had strong opposition from rubber tappers, were more easily launched in PAEs. Even though the PAEs are administer ed by INCRA, their regulations and inhabitants differ from those of colonist areas, such as Peixoto. Decree No. 268/1996 legislates that PAEs may be used for fore st management through sustainable practices (INCRA 1999). Kageyama et. al (2004) point out important di fferences between colonist 15 Earlier the INCRAÂ’S Decree 627/1987 called this form of land-tenure extractive settlement projects. However, later in 1996, it was altered to agro-extract ive settlement. Surely this change characterizes the PAE itself as a combination of colonist and extractive land-use practices (see Kageyama et. al 2004).
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37 and agroextrativist settlements: a) PAEsÂ’ settlers are more sensitive to resource conservation; b) the plot sizes allocated to PAE families have been around 300 ha, while in colonist areas this amount varied between 25 ha and 100 ha; c) the size of agricultural and pasture areas among PAE families are le ss than those found among colonist farmers, and cleared areas have often returned to sec ondary forest. Moreover, similar to extractive reserves, PAEs have been defined as posse ssions of the federal government. Based on the same regulation, PAEs are characterized as community land concessions that must be managed by an association, cooperative or other variety of collective organization. Currently in Acre there are eight PAEs but INCRA and the State government are planning to create 30 others ove r the next few years, which ma y raise the PAEsÂ’ land area to approximately 1,900,000 hectar es, or, 12.3% of the Acrean territory (Governo do Acre 2000b). As pointed out by Rego (2003), PA E settlers prior to 1997 relied upon a combination of agriculture, livestock, and non-timber forest product-based land use systems. However, after 1999, stimulated by forest-policies initiatives, timber forest management came up as a new opportunity for rubber-tappers of these types of settlements. In the following section I will discuss the study sites in this thesis. I focus on how the three areas of this research were select ed as a sampling of extractive reserve, agroextractive reserves, and col onist areas located in the Rio Acre watershed region. The Study Sites Peixoto Colonization Settlement: The Agrosilvopastoral Model The Grupo Novo Ideal (GPNI) rural association, whic h is located in the Peixoto settlement, was selected as a colonizati on sample in the Rio Acre watershed. The Colonization Settlement, in which this community is located, has around 318,000
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38 hectares, and was created in 1977 by INCRA. Th is settlement, facilitated by the presence of the BR-364 highway, emerged in the 1980s as the most important area in the Rio Acre watershed region for food production (Menez es 2004). Situated around 150 kilometers from the city of Rio Branco, AcreÂ’s cap ital, GNPI is currently comprised of 27 smallholders. As colonists, their land use strategies in clude a range of slas h and burn agriculture as well as livestock activities, but as a result of policy incentives since 1999, cattle and coffee have emerged as their main econo mic activities. In 1994, however, they had launched experiments with agroforestry as an alternative to defore station and means to diversify their cash income. However, the agro silvopastoral strategies of those families have been strongly influenced by dynamics of land use that took place in the land tenure regime in which they are located. The land use history within this community, as in other colonist areas located in Acre, has been characterized by a drastic tr ansformation, from forest uses (e.g., logging, rubber, and Brazil nuts) to agriculture and cattle production. Over th e past few years, however, soil degradation has been a constr aint for colonists in maintaining their agriculture and pasture areas. Ar ajo and Silva (2000) show that soil fertility in this settlement is not appropriated for agricultural activities. Yet, despite the areaÂ’s limited shifting cultivation pote ntial, Lorena (2003) observed that in PeixotoÂ’s lots, the annual and perennial crops area as we ll as pasture increased from ~17% in 1990 to ~35% of the total area in 1999. These expanding activities ex plain why the forest cover within this settlement declined from almost 90% in 1984 to 54% in 199816. Both ecological and 16 I used Landsat TM imageries of 1984 and 1998 to perform a forest-non forest unsupervised classification to estimate the amount of defore station within this settlement.
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39 socioeconomic factors stimulate small farm ers to clear more forest in order to compensate for pasture degradation (Valentim et al. 2000), as well as to implement alternative land uses to avoid deforestation. To address the problem of pasture degrada tion, some initiatives have been launched in Peixoto and other coloni zation areas. Over the past few years a coalition of governmental and non-governmental organizations has attempted to in troduce alternative land use practices such as agroforestry systems (Menezes 2004). The GPNI community was among the first areas in which these initi atives have been implemented. While until the early 1990s the families in GNPI concentr ated their land use strategies on slash and burn crops and livestock activit ies with emphasis on cattle, in 1994 they were stimulated to introduce agroforestry systems. In collaboration with the Research Group for Agroforestry Systems and Extension (PESACRE), a local NGO in Acre, three ne w components were in corporated into livelihood systems of GNPI households. First, for reducing environmental degradation, PESACRE encouraged community members to introduce agroforestry systems into their land use practices. Second, for enhancing the co mpetitiveness of their products as well as decreasing the risk of health problems as a consequence of pesticide use, organic agriculture initiatives were also established among GP NIÂ’ members. The last proposal attempted to address the n eed to focus on long-term ma rket sustainability through leadership training and commercialization of ag roforestry products. Although the GPNI community may be charac terized as a coloni zation project, its members have adopted innovative strategies for changing the conventional land use practices within this category of land tenur e. These families have combined traditional
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40 agriculture, agroforestry cattle, livestock, coffee, and fru it processing. Further, the forest government, in its spatial economic zoning of 2003, established th e area in which the GPNI is located, as having potential for coffee, pupunha and dairy cattle. As a result, governmental planning may stimulate comm unity members to shift their production systems from agrosilvopastoral strategies to these activities. Add itionally, other drivers commonly affecting land cover change in Am azonia have also been observed, such as timber extraction and the presence of unofficial dirt roads. In this dynamic context, it becomes important to assess economic and land cover outcomes in a changing colonization project such as GNPI. Porto Dias Agro-extractive Settlemen t: The Timber Forest Management Model In the late 1980s, guided by Decree No. 627/ 87 that introduced th e agro-extractive settlement (PAE) as a new category of land tenure, INCRA initiated the discussion to create the PAE Porto Dias. In 1989 this ar ea was established with approximately 22,000 hectares, and in 2002, Porto Dias had a popul ation of almost 90 families (Governo do Estado do Acre 2000a). While PAEs are superv ised by INCRA, an agency created for implementing colonization settlement in Amazo nia, Porto Dias was planned to settle rubber tapper families. It is also characteri zed by having a combination of agricultural colonists and forest extractivists. This comb ination has been present since its initial moments of discussion for launching its creation in the early 1980s (Stone 2003). Moreover, when the Brazilian government launc hed colonization settlements in the early 1970s and 1980s, some colonist producers esta blished their lots within Porto Dias (Michelloti 1993). Porto Dias is divided into three geogra phic zones. Zone 1 is comprised of 27 members who are represented by the Porto Di as Rubber Tappers Asso ciation. Zone 2 is
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41 managed by So Jos Association, called Mossor, represented by 11 of the PAEÂ’s residents. Zone 3 is under the control of the ASPOMACRE, an asso ciation that has its headquarters located in the state of Rondni a and has 103 members of which only 11 are inhabitants of PAE Porto Dias. The households of zones 2 and 3 do not cons ider themselves as rubber tappers and prefer to be categorized as colonists. When interviews were conducted in these areas these inhabitants declared that they had a preference of having their landholdings ( colocaes ) outside of PAE territory, but INCRA did not approve their proposal. The range of economic activities addressed by these families reflects their self categorization as colonists. Cattle and logging combined w ith agriculture and small-scale livestock production are their major economic activitie s. Forest products, such as rubber, medicinal plants, and Brazil nuts have no importance for their subsistence or commercialization. In this study I have selected zone 1 to assess community timber forest management in the Porto Dias PAE. This is the area wher e rubber tappers have implemented initiatives combining forest management, as well as othe r land use for agriculture, cattle, and other livestock. The Porto Dias Association was created in 1988 and its number of members has varied over time. For the purpose of this study, all of the 27 households in Porto Dias PAE Zone 1 were selected. Timber management was implemented by th e Porto Dias Association in 1994 with the support of the Centro dos Trabalhadores da Amaznia (CTA) (Center for Amazonian Workers). The first timber harvesting, how ever, took place two years later in 1996. Besides timber products, through support from the Federal Ministry of the Environment
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42 (MMA), the forest management plan included also rubber, Brazil nuts and medicinal oils such as copaiba ( Copaifera spp ). Since that time period, however, association members have predominantly oriented their effort s toward timber production (Rodrigues 2004). In 2003 the PDA became the second commun ity-managed project to achieve Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification in Am azonia. This process is considered a difficult task for any organization, given th e bureaucratic demands and costs which are particularly onerous for communities faci ng challenges in organization and physical infrastructure. Technical support from out side organizations, such as CTA, was fundamental for PDA Porto Dias to be succe ssful in gaining certification status. Although FSC certification was conceded to the association, the number of rubber tappers engaged in timber management has varied from 7 to 10 families. Political disagreements, lack of financial transparen cy, and limited financial and technical support for community leaders, as well as absence of economic returns, have been the main impediments to the timber management initiative. Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve: The Non-timber Forest Management Model The Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve is one of the premier communities in which forest diversification has been pursued over the past years in eastern Acre. It is bordered by large cattle ranchers that we re the main group antagonistic to its creation. With almost 1 million hectares and an estimated curre nt population of 3,000 families, the Chico Mendes Reserve was the second extractive reserv e created in the stat e of Acre in 1990, established by Federal Decree 99,144/90. Its inhabitants have concentrated their efforts on non-timber forest products, small plots of ag riculture, and livestock as their activities for subsistence and cash income generati on. Until 2004, it was the largest Brazilian extractive reserve, stretching across parts of five Acre municipalities: Rio Branco,
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43 Xapuri, Brasilia, Sena Madurei ra, and Assis Brasil. In the late 1970s and 1980s these municipalities were where the land conflic ts became most intense in Acre. The first landmark for the creation of Ch ico Mendes occurred in 1980 when Wilson Pinheiro, president of the rural workers union of Brasilia, was killed by large scale cattle ranchers. Almost ten years la ter in 1988, the assassination of Chico Mendes, the rubber tappersÂ’ most high-profile leader was the final step for the creation of this reserve. Despite its importance as a land tenure category that has attempted to balance economic, cultural, and environmental goals, so me studies have iden tified the tendency for accelerating forest loss in the Chico Me ndes Reserve. Wallace (2004) noted that rubber tappers have invested in livestock, in cluding cattle, as a strategy for increasing their total on-farm income. Sassagawa (1999) es timated that the percentage of deforested area in this Resex increased from 0.72% in 1986 to 2.9% in 1998. However, it has been an important barrier for forest clearing in this region. In 2001, monitoring using Satellite GOES indicated that fire occurrence has been most intensive outside of this reserve (Souza 2001). Indeed, although the long-term viability of the Resex as a land tenure strategy has been a concern among scholars, various initia tives conducted in coll aboration with local inhabitants have indicated its long-term ec onomic and environmental sustainability (see Maciel 2003 and Kageyama 2002). Over the past ten years, a coali tion of governmental and non-governmental organizations and uni versities has collaborated with Resex communities to amplify their range of non-timbe r forest products as an alternative to deforestation and intensive land use. For in stance, since 1999 the fo rest government has supported market-based initiatives though cred it, subsidies, commun ity training, and the
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44 encouragement of 15 non-timber forest produc ts (Kainer et al, 2003). In addition, the Federal University of Acre (UFAC), s upported by Brazilian and international organizations, has been a key institutions collaborating with ru bber tappers and their organizations. A few months after Jorge Viana won the 1998 election, a multi-institutional partnership was established for implementi ng and monitoring the forest management within three rubbe r tapper estates ( seringal ): So Pedro, Floresta, and Palmari. A group of 34 rubber tapper landholdings ( colocaes ) were selected from those three seringais in which the non-timber forest program has been implemented since 1999. These families were selected in my study as cases of a non-timber forest model taking place within Resexs in Acre. The three seringais selected cover an area of al most 37,000 hectares and they are located in the municipality of Xapuri. Some studies such as Esteves (1999) emphasize that these three areas are among the places in the Chico Mendes Resex where, over the past 10 years, intensive investments in Brazi l-nut production has taken place, as well as community organization activities. Esteves show s that economic and social benefits, such as dirt roads, credit, and subsidies as well as education and health programs were distributed based on kinship ties. These fact s suggest that the socioeconomic benefits were not distributed equally among rubber ta ppers of the Chico Mendes Resex. However, since the forest government took power in 1999, the strategy employed by families of these three seringais has been a reference point for establishing a common development plan throughout the Chico Mendes Resex. Th ese characteristics offer us a unique
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45 opportunity to assess the community forest management model in terms of its economic performance and capacity for forest conservation. Land use strategies in the Chico Mende s Resex have been implemented in accordance with its Utilization Plans ( Planos de Utilizao ), which are defined by common agreement between rubber tappers th rough their associat ions and IBAMA and CNPT. Although many of those economic initiatives have been focused on non-timber forest products, timber extraction has been discussed as an economic opportunity. Even though timber management is not permitted within Resex areas, the Acre government supported by Marina Silva, the current Br azilian Minister of the Environment, has attempted to change the Resex law (Feder al Decree No. 98,897) to incorporate timber extraction for commercialization into the rubber tapper economy. Yet, the question of timber versus non-timber models of forest management remains an important topic of discussion among communities, their or ganizations, and policymakers. Conclusion While economic booms were historically a key driver for stimulating human settlement in the Amazon region, policy inst ruments have more recently been utilized there to facilitate ec onomic development. In addition, lo cal, national, an d international forces were arranged based on social coalitions among act ors at various levels. For instance, the social movement led by rubber tappers in the 1970s and 1980s with support of organizations was successf ul to influence changes in the land tenure policies for creating extractive reserves and agro-extractive settlements. Although the policies of the forest government have been one of the most important factors influencing land tenure after the rubber tapper movement of the late 1980s, remarkable differences are visible in deve lopment policy since the forest government
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46 entered in 1999. While neoextrativismo emphasized a policy based on sociocultural use of natural resources, florestania has called for polices based on products with comparative economic advantage at the regional level. The effectiveness of these policies in terms of land cover and economic results wi ll be evaluated through empirical data for 2004. This study concentrates on three community land tenure systems for assessing the economic and forest cover effects of these polices. The Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, Porto Dias Agro-extractive Settlemen t, and the Peixoto Colonization settlement were selected as areas for achieving this analysis. These land tenure systems are a representation of community land tenures located in the Rio Acre Watershed Region, where both neoextrativista and florestania initiatives have been implemented. Remarkable differences, such as socio-cultur al, institutional, and livelihood system, are evident among these land tenure types. In the following chapter, I address methodol ogical issues arising from the distinct requirements for conducting economic and environm ental research in each of these three land tenure categories I divide the discussi on into three major sections. The first will concentrate on how the fieldwork was conducte d. Secondly, I will explain how the land cover and economic data were processed, as well as the key dependent and independent variables in this study. And finally, I will discuss how economic and land cover were linked in order to conduct the analysis.
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47 CHAPTER 3 METHODS AND TECNIQUES FOR EC ONOMIC AND REMOTE SENSING ANALYSES Introduction This chapter explains how I used econo mic and remote sensing approaches to evaluate three land tenure types located in th e state of Acre, Brazil. To identify the land use and economic dynamics in the study areas, I combined survey fieldwork with remote sensing data from an extractive reserve, an agro-extractive settlement, and a colonist settlement. I compared land tenure categories in order to understa nd the linkages between land use strategies and land cover in each community area selected. Various studies have concentrated effo rts on linking socioeconomic and land cover factors at multiple scales. While some anal yses have focused on the macro-scale (e.g., Cattaneo 2001, Carvalho et al. 2002), other studies have evaluated the dynamics and drivers at the micro-scale, particularly at the household level. For example, Vosti et al. (2003) elaborated a farm-level bioecono mic linear programming model to simulate consequences of product and tec hnology choices for deforestation Walker (2003), seeking an economic explanation of forest cover change at the household level in the Amazon region, provided a smallholder mode l for colonist settlements based on Chayanov household theory in which demogra phic and market variable are linked. Perz (2001) also focused on economic and land use an alysis at household level in colonist areas of Amazon region using multivariate regression.
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48 While these and other studies evaluate de forestation at the family level in the Brazilian Amazon, I have identified virtually no work that compares multiple land tenure types. A notable exception is Mertens et al. (2002), who focus on cattle economy and deforestation in the state of Par, Brazil, and published a remarkable study in which socioeconomic and satellite data were li nked to understand land cover change over a three year period. While these authors compared three land tenure types, the comparison is made at the municipal level, which leav es out many important explanations found only at a household level. I focus on land use processes at the hous ehold level within three land tenure categories in southwestern Amazonia: extractiv e reserve, agro-extractive settlement, and colonist settlement. Consequently, th e methodology involves both economic and land cover analyses and was performed using th ree methods. First, I conducted fieldwork, which was divided into two pa rts: 1) a household economic survey in 2004; and 2) the land cover GPS data colle ction during the summers of 2004 and 2005. Second, I processed the data from the economic survey and GPS and satellite images. Households were analyzed in terms of their economic re sults, that is, income and cost values aggregated by economic activities (crops, ti mber and non-timber products, as well as livestock). I utilized the GPS points and Landsat data to perform a supervised classification for each community area. In order to correlate these results to the economic outcomes, my classification distinguished four land cover types: crop s, forest, pasture, and forest regrowth. Third, I linked economic and land cover data for the three study sites, in order to conduct a mu ltivariate analysis to test my hypotheses about land tenure, the economics of land use, and land cover outcomes.
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49 In the next sections I discuss these three phases in more detail. I begin by describing how the socioeconomic survey was carried out. In this part I discuss the questionnaire, planning for fieldwork, a pric e survey, and the fieldwork itself. Second, I focus on how the land cover GPS points were coll ected. The third part provides details of how a calibration and validation of satellite da ta were carried out. The fourth section I explains how economic and land cover data were analyzed. The Socioeconomic Survey In this section, I discuss how the socioeconomic data were collected. It is important to note at the outset that this study resulted from multi-institutional collaborations with various organizations in Acre, so I recogni ze my collaborators as co-authors of the database on which I will draw. The 2004 surv ey resulted from collaborative efforts among PESACRE, CTA, UFAC, a nd the State Government. Besides research assistants, community memb ers were also directly involved in the field data collection. At th e Porto Dias Agro-extractiv e Settlement, the residents association selected five community members to take part in the research group. In the Peixoto colonization site, the Novo Ideal AssociationÂ’s board director designated three resident members to help us during our fieldwork. In the Chico Mendes Resex, the Association of the Residents in Xapuri (A MOREX) mobilized five rubber tappers to guide the group within the forest. They al so helped applying the semi-structured questionnaire. The Chico MendesÂ’ fieldwork al so counted on the participation of one board director from the Rural Workers Uni on of Xapuri who had past experience with socioeconomic surveys. Prior to the fieldwork, additional planning was required given the distinct characteristics of the study sites. First, he lped by local stakeholde rs, I selected my study
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50 sites within each land tenure ca tegory. Second, in order to gr asp the land use specificity of each land tenure type, I used meetings with community and institutions as an opportunity to elaborate my questionnaire. After these two stages I carried out two surveys. The first one was the household fieldw ork in the three select ed sites. The second one was a price survey to ma ke possible the estimation of income and costs. When I concluded my two surveys, I organized the da ta in a spreadsheet program and calibrated and validated the land cover classifi cations during the summer of 2005. Household Sampling The household sampling was carried out following three sequential phases. First, helped by IBAMA, CNPT, CNS, and community organizations, I identified in the Rio Acre watershed region community land te nures representing extractivist, agroextractivist, and colonist areas. For each co mmunity land-tenure types present in this region, I distinguished communities by degr ee of socioeconomic development, taking into consideration access (roads), presence of public services (school, hospital, etc), community organization (association and coopera tive), technical assistance, and level of production. As a result, the Chico Mendes Resex, Porto Dias PAE, and Peixoto PC were selected. Second, within these areas, I distinguished families working with agrosilvopastoral and timber as well as non-timber forest ma nagement. This criterion was adopted in order to evaluate the interface w ith public polices taking place in Acre since 1999, which have emphasized those land use stra tegies. Third, I also considered areas with prior governmental investments, such as road construction, subsidies, governmental support for commercialization, and certif ication. Consequently, one rubber tapper association area, one rural association area, a nd three rubber estates were identified for conducting this study. In the Chico Mendes Re sex, the sample size was constituted by 34
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51 families from the Floresta, Palmari, and S o Pedro rubber estates. In Porto Dias, 27 households located in the area under the c ontrol of the Porto Dias Rubber Tapper Association1, were selected. Lastly, within the Pe ixoto Settlement, the household sample included 27 families organized under the Novo Ideal Rural Association16. The Questionnaire The questionnaire was derived from particip atory efforts with various stakeholders and community members. This strategy was implemented to ensure that the livelihood system of each land tenure type was capture d by the survey. Overall, the questionnaire focused on land cover, socioeconomic aspect s, and resource management practices targeted by forest government policies in Acre As the livelihood and land use strategies across land tenure are not similar, I elaborat ed one questionnaire fo r each study site (see Appendix A, B, and C). For instance, in the Chico Mendes Resex communities, timber forest management was not included in the questionnaire, because this activity is not permitted in that tenure type. The questionnaire was divided into eight sections. The first included socioeconomic topics, such as household co mposition, migration, accessibility, and land use distribution. Section two focused on cr op production, livestock, and machines and equipment. The third section quantifies cost s and yield per type of activity conducted by households, such as crops, livestock, and fore st management. This section also included family expenses on purchased goods and services (such as rice, beans, oil, salt, clothes, health etc), as well as family and outside labor force. The fourth part evaluated the amount of goods cultivated and/or harvested th at were used for family consumption, such 1 The number of families does not correspond to the current number of members in this association. That is because the sample included families that we re not affiliated with the organizations.
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52 as annual and perennial crops, livestock, herbs, forest products, among others. The fifth section of the questionnaire considered cash in come from commerc ialized production. The sixth included off-farm income (e.g., bolsa escola salaries, retirement income). To assess institutional support fo r land use strategies, the seve nth section included questions on rural technical assistance from govern mental or non-governmental organizations. Finally, the last section had open questions about public policies implemented in the community area. The Household Fieldwork The field survey was carried out from Ma y to August 2004. I selected five research assistants with prior experience in socioec onomic surveys in rural communities in Acre, each with different backgrounds (economics geography, history, agronomic engineering, and forestry engineering). On average, we spent one day with each household, in order to conduct a semi-structured interview, partic ipatory land use mapping, and GPS training sampling. Prior to the fieldwork, the assistants atte nded a one-week training course focusing on the livelihood systems of smallholders, semi -structured questionnai res, and the use of remote sensing and GIS techniques in the field. In the last tw o days of training they practiced these techniques in the the Humait Colonization Settlement, located approximately 30 kilometers from Rio Branco, in the municipality of Porto Acre. Moreover, community members were incl uded as part of th e research team. The Price Survey To estimate values for all household costs (expenses) and income sources (revenues), I conducted a price survey in the municipalities where families commercialized their products and bought goods: Xapuri, Brasilia, Rio Branco,
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53 Acrelndia, Epitaciolndia, and Plcido de Castro. Moreover, cooperatives and associations of producers were contacted, as well as the gove rnment offices to determine the prices for timber and non-timber forest produ cts. To correct for inflation, I used the IGP (General Price Index), the most common i ndex in Brazil for that purpose, to correct all prices to February 2005. I used a mean price for each product or service to estimate the income and costs of each family, which were corrected by IGP. These values were converted to the mean U.S. dollar – Brazi lian real (R$) exchange for February 20052. Participatory Findings Assessment: Atte mpts for Calibration and Validation Household analysis, especially when focu sed on economic analysis, has often been an obstacle for socioeconomic researchers. Ellis (2000) emphasized the complexity of empirical appraisal at the household level as a result of livelihood diversity as well as inter-temporal social processes continuously taking place. Schmink (1984) argued that household economics are determined by social processes which are historically defined. In this context, I have understood that ru ral policies, as in Acre, have incessantly failed as a consequence of lack of know ledge about smallholder livelihoods and alternative strategies. In order to addre ss these challenges, Hildebrand and Schmink (2004) suggest a framework combining part icipatory methods and ethnographic linear programming fostered by a constant partic ipative process of si mulation, calibration, and validation of household models. The survey methodology used in this study employ this approach. I involved local residents and decision makers of local, re gional, and national or ganizations during the sampling, fieldwork planning, and the fieldwork itself. Calibra tion and validation of data 2 This study utilized the mean US$ to R$ exchange for February 2005 of US$ 1.00 to R$ 2.597.
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54 were carried out in May 2005 when several st akeholders attended seminars in order to evaluate the datasets. These seminars were conducted in four pha ses. First, after th e household and price surveys, the data underwent processing and preliminary analyses. Results were then discussed with researchers, policymakers, NGOs, and community or ganizations in Rio Branco. Next, the data related to the amount of production and prices for timber and nontimber forest products were corrected. Thir d, findings were submitted to community members for evaluation of in each study site via particip atory dialogue we discussed the forest and agrosilvopastoral seasonal calenda r, as well as the range of main products extracted and their prices, and income and costs distribution. After these meetings, I identified discrepancies, and the da ta were adjusted and re-processed. Land Cover Data Collection and Fieldwork In this study, I used Landsat 5 TM+ imag es from the scenes 67/001 and 67/002 of about the same time of the year. The 2004 images were taken between July 29 and August 26. For the two scenes, I used bands 1 through 5. In addition, I utilized ancillary data including polygon shape files containi ng land tenure types applied for the study sites. Polygons delimiting the Chico Mendes Resex, Porto Dias Agro-extractive Settlement, and Peixoto Colonization Settlem ent were selected for this analysis. While doing household interviews, the resear ch team collected training samples of land cover types (crops, pasture, forest regr owth, and forest) at the three study sites. Additionally, a printe d sub-set image of 2004 Landsat image3 was provided to each team member for each area to identify likely land cover types in the household area. All GPS 3 The Landsat images were adjusted for RGB= 5, 4, 3 and georefereced for UTM, datum SAD 69, zone 19 South.
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55 were adjusted to UTM, datum SAD 69, and zone number 19 South. To increase accuracy of these data, each land cover point was coll ected at least three times. Training samples collection was carried out using a modified version of the CIPEC training sample protocol (Appendix D), which incl udes details such as soil, vegetation type, and presence of human disturbance. In this study, we collected 442 traini ng samples and 366 CIPEC forms. This fieldwork was carried out in two phases. Firs t, during the fieldwork in 2004, we collected 345 training samples and completed approxi mately 300 land cover forms. Although the field team was intensively trained fo r the land cover GPS point collections I encountered some difficulties in performing a supervised classification for th e study areas during the fall 2004. As Daly and Silveira (2001) pointed out, over 50% of Ac reÂ’s territory is covered by bamboo forest. On the first supervis ed classification perf ormed at the end of 2004, this vegetation dominance created confus ion between forest regrowth, crops, and bamboo-dominated vegetation. Consequently (second), from May to June 2005, I visited all three community areas to collect new land cover samples (principally within bamboo and secondary forest areas). During this pe riod, I gathered 97 samples and 66 land cover protocols. In the summer of 2005, I was able to complete a new supervised classification and verify its accuracy at each study site. The Post-Survey: Data Processing and analysis Household Economic Approach The economic analysis performed here was based initially on Brazilian literature on micro-economics and agricultural economics (e.g., Gastal 1980, Mafra 1988, Barros and Estcio 1972, Guerreiro 1994, and Martin 1995) th at elaborated economic parameters for assessing input and outputs among smallholde rs. In addition, I drew on studies focusing
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56 on the Amazonian smallholders (Vosti et al. 2003, Walker 2003) which have evaluated households as economically rational decisi on makers who pursue profit maximization, that is, they continuously plan their cost-i ncome balances. This traditional model of analysis ignores the asp ects highlighted in peasant economy theory (Thorner et al. 1986). This theory establishes that household economics (e.g., extrac tivists, agro-extractivists, and small farmer colonists) aim to balance both market (sold yi eld) and consumption (subsistence yield) goals. In this context, family labor as a cost component and subsistence as an income element represente d two important factors in the analysis. For identifying the land tenure differences, an ex-post4 economic analysis was performed in which inputs (factors of produc tion) and outputs (pr oduction or economic results) were estimated. Three aspects a dvocated by Gastal (1 980), Mafra (1988), and Barros and Estcio (1972) were utilized as guidelines for my economic assessment: 1) the community land tenures as a system consti tuted by social, economic, and ecological components; 2) an understanding of the extract ive reserves, agro-extractive settlements, and colonist settlements as systems of production defined by bi ophysical and social dimensions; and 3) a view of the household as an economic unit with in each land tenure system and constituted by production and management goals. These considerations required that inputs and outputs should be m easured to capture the uniqueness of each household within each community and land tenu re type. The first step of the economic analysis was based on income, cost, and prof itability by type of product at the household level. In the following section, I discuss these economic measures. 4 By ex post economic analysis I mean to say that household economic assessment was performed based on household economic activities carried out prior to the survey. The 2004 household survey covered economic activities carried out from June 2003 through July 2004.
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57 Gross Income ( GI) is defined here as the result of selling a product in the market, and acts as an indicator of the scale of pr oduction. It also includes family consumption from crops, livestock, and forest products. In addition, it reflects th e land use strategy of each family. Crops and cattle are expected to represent the major components for income of colonist residents (Peixoto community ), while timber and non-timber products are expected to be most important for Porto Dias and Chico Mendes respectively. Gross Income is calculated as follows: GI = Qm pp (3.1.) Where, Qm = qv + qe + qc (3.2.) Qm=quantity of the product destined for the market qv=quantity of the product sold qe=quantity produced in prev ious years and not sold qc=quantity produced or harv ested consumed by family qp=unit price of the product Total Cost (Tc) is defined here as the total m onetary value spent by the household to produce or harvest specific products. It is derived by summing two components: the variable costs (Vc) and the fixed costs (FC). In the household anal ysis addressed by this study, labor is the main element in Vc. The total fixed cost is distributed between values that correspond to the determined product i and is made up of the specific fixed cost for a determined product i (EFc) and the common cost of i products, called the fixed common cost (CFc). Fc n i i Fc n i i C CC e V T 1 1 (3.3.)
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58 Where, TC = Total Production Cost VC = Variable Production Cost of product i eFc = Specific Fixed Cost of product i CFc = Common Fixed Cost of product i. To evaluate the economic viability of the household production system, this study also measured the profitability of rubber tappers and colonists economies categorized by products. I therefore generated a profit (P) analysis to compare cat egories of products and to correlate their profitab ility with deforestation. Profitability also allows verification of the possibility of a financial gain, and consequently accumulation at the family level. In contrast to some other studies which used a type of analysis based only on gross income and total cost (Vosti et al. 2003), this work included family subsistence into the gross income. The calculated formula for profitability is, R = GI TC (3.4) According to the results, I may observe three specific situations: R > 0, where there is a gain R < 1, where there is a loss R = 1, break-even Economic Analysis The economic analysis of the study was based on primary data from 2004 and focused on economic outcomes of land use strategies utilized by families in each landtenure type. For comparative purpos es, I divided the data analysis into three parts. First, I performed an economic analysis at the commun ity level. During this phase I divided the
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59 data into income and cost outcomes aggregat ed by products. In order to evaluate these results I utilized mean, standard deviati on, and skew. Second, I car ried out a similar analysis by land tenure types aggregated by crops, livestock, non-timber, and timber activities. During this phase I used F-tests results to evaluate wh ether differences of means among sites were signifi cant. And third, I also perfor med a profitability analysis by land tenure types. Land Cover Data Processing In addition to the socioeconomic survey, re mote sensing techniques were utilized in order to evaluate the land cover distribu tion within each study site. The land cover processing performed in this study is presen ted in Figure 3-1. Usi ng georeferenced land cover samples collected in 2004 and 2005, I pr oduced a land cover signature based on 2004 images for four classes: forest, crops, pa sture, and regrowth. I then utilized this signature to perform a superv ised classification on a mosa ic of 67-001 and 67-002 scenes. Two hundred and twenty-one training sample s of 442 collected in 2004 and 2005 were selected through stra tified random sampling for image classification. The remaining 221 training samples were used to evaluate the accuracy of my classi fication. All analyses were performed using Erdas Imagine softwa re version 8.4, ArcView GIS version 3.2, and SPSS version 11.0. Landsat images processing was carried out following various steps (Figure 3-1). The first procedure to assess land cover was to calibrate th e images (Green, 1999). I also performed band by band atmospheric correction of the 2004 images as discussed in Jensen (2005). I used a layer-stack to merge the five bands for analysis of each scene in separate .img (Erdas) files. Next I performed pre-processing tasks and image-to-image geo-referencing was done based on a 1995 im age as a reference (Jensen, 2005). Once I
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60 obtained the georeferenced, calibrated, atmosphe rically-corrected, and merged images for 67-001 and 67-002 scenes, I performed a superv ised classification of the 2004 image. Figure 3-1. Diagram of land cover proce ssing in the study area, Acre, Brazil. The classification for 2004 was submitted to two types of assessment. The accuracy assessment was conducted based on 221 trai ning samples collected during 2004 and 2005. Furthermore, a field appraisal of this classification was carri ed out in June 2005. Over two weeks I visited each of the three study sites and assessed the accuracy of the 2004 classification, comparing onthe-ground observations with a printed map of the land cover results in each community areas With a GPS and via co nversations with local residents, I was able to validate the accu racy of each land cover class within each community area. After the accur acy assessment and field appr aisal of the classification results, I identified the amount of area cove red by each class at the household level. These results were incorporated in the SPSS economic database. Since this study addresses a socioeconomi c and land cover analysis at household level, I created a border for each familyÂ’s landholding and analyzed it separately. In Individual 2004 Landsat band files (1,2,3,4,5) Layer stack Merged 2004 Landsat Image Image to image georeferencing AcreÂ’s georeferenced 1996 image Georeferenced 1998 Landsat Image Georeferenced/ calibrated/atm. corrected 2004 Image Supervised classification Training samples Classified 2004 Image Accuracy assessment Training samples smallholders 2004 land cover types Image subset Landowners boundaries Images error assessment SPSS Processing Image calibration Atmospheric correction Individual 2004 Landsat band files (1,2,3,4,5) Individual 2004 Landsat band files (1,2,3,4,5) Layer stack Merged 2004 Landsat Image Image to image georeferencing AcreÂ’s georeferenced 1996 image Georeferenced 1998 Landsat Image Georeferenced/ calibrated/atm. corrected 2004 Image Supervised classification Training samples Classified 2004 Image Accuracy assessment Training samples Accuracy assessment Training samples smallholders 2004 land cover types Image subset Landowners boundaries Image subset Landowners boundaries Images error assessment SPSS Processing Image calibration Atmospheric correction Image calibration Atmospheric correction
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61 Peixoto, I utilized the georeferenced plot boundaries collected by INCRA for each local resident. Based on these digitalized lots I identified the GPNI community boundaries as well as the properties selected in this study on the classified Landsat image (Figure 3-1). Land cover analyses were performe d on those selected residents. In the Chico Mendes and Porto Dias comm unities, the limits of each householdÂ’s landholdings were not as easy to identify. Co mmonly, rubber tappers utilize rubber-trails (estradas de seringa) as their natural boundaries. CNPT/IBAMA and INCRA, the institutions responsible for those land te nure types, have had difficulty establishing boundaries among smallholders of extractive and agro-extractive reserves. After an intensive literature search for studies w ith similar problems in delineating household property boundaries, I decided to ut ilize the Thiessen polygon algorithm5 based on fuzzy set theory to produce boundaries for each colocao on these rubber estates. Using the algorithm discussed above, I wa s able to define the boundaries among each household property following three procedur es. First, I used the location of the householdÂ’s home within their colocao, available from CNPT /IBAMA and INCRA, to identify each family area. In the Chico Mendes Resex, I only selected colocaes within the So Pedro, Palmari, and Floresta seringais. In the Porto Dias case, there were no borders among seringais, and I made use of all georeferenced colocao points. Second, I 5 This is a remote sensing technique in which an indi vidual area of influence around each set of points is defined. Based on fuzzy theory, the polygonsÂ’ boundaries are the area that is closest to each point relative to all other points. They are mathematically calculated through two sequential steps. First, the entire area is divided into polygons in which one polygon per point is established. Second, the distance among points indicating colocaes area is minimized. However, in the broad sense, the fuzzy logic utilized in this approach to estimate boundaries of colocaes is a process of inferring imprecise conclusions from imprecise premises. As pointed out by Dragi evi (2005) this deduction is approximate rather than exact because data described and generated under the ci rcumstance of lack of information and accuracy assessment implies a high cost. Since my summer time in Acre was not sufficient to assess the accuracy of this technique within each family ar ea, I was only able to evaluate the boundaries of two smallholders within of each land tenure type.
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62 produced colocao polygons using the Thiessen algorithm in ArcView based on fuzzy set theory. Third, I sele cted polygons of sampled colocaes, which were georeferenced during the 2004 fieldwork, in both Chico Mende s and Porto Dias totaling 61 family areas. Economic and Land Cover Integration Economic data from the household surveys we re integrated spatially in a GIS with satellite data for the land cover classes for each corresponding property polygon in the three study sites. To identify th e main factors related to defo restation in the study sites, a multivariate regression analysis was carried out. Taking into consideration the limited sample size in this research, this analysis was performed for all sites (88 households). During this part of my analysis, I cons tructed five regression models based on different theoretical foundations. The first model evaluated the effect of land tenure category for deforestation. The second was a life cycle model in which I assessed the effects of family dynamics on deforestation in the study sites. The third was a market integration model in which I evaluated the in fluence of market access and family cash purchases on land cover dynamics. The fourth model assessed the effects of cost composition for deforestation among extractivist, agro-extractivist, and colonist areas. Finally, in the last model I estimated the im portance of assets for land cover dynamics in the study sites. Conclusion This thesis seeks to establish linkages be tween economic and fore st cover datasets of three community land tenures types in southwestern Amazonia. I utilized a combination of methods to link socioeconomic and satellite data. First, to generate an understanding of distinct land tenure categor ies, a questionnaire was generated via a collaborative participatory process. Second, I conducted th e economic field survey of
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63 households in the three study sites, recognizing the differences in the rules of each land tenure type concerning resource management. Third, the classifi cation of satellite images for each study site was based on the four basi c land cover types existent within of the communities: forest, forest regrowth, pasture, and crops. Fourth, the data integration was carried out by defining a common unit of anal ysis for both economic and remote sensing approaches, in order to unify the data spat ially to allow for a multivariate regression analysis.
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64 CHAPTER 4 ECONOMIC AND LAND USE COMPARISON OF SMALLHOLDER LAND TENURE MODELS IN TH E STATE OF ACRE Introduction This chapter responds to the need for an empirical assessment of how community land tenure models in Acre differ in term s of their economic and land cover outcomes. Specifically, the chapter concentrates on how economic variables affect land cover change among households within Resex, agro -extractive settlements, and colonist settlements. In order to address these issues, this ch apter has three objectives. The first is to examine crop, pasture, regrowth, and forest ar eas at the household le vel and to determine the extent to which timber and non-timber forest management as well as agrosilvopastoral strategies lead to different amounts of deforestation. The second objective is to estimate the economic efficien cy of each land use strategy implemented by inhabitants of each study area. Finally, the third objective is to evaluate how microeconomic factors are related to land cover di stribution. Other non-econom ic factors, such as family composition, age, distance to ma rket, and length of residence are also considered to explain land c over at the community level. This chapter is organized into three parts. Part one offers an overview of land cover distributions in each study site, in terms of forest, crops, pasture, and forest regrowth. Part two introduces the economic analysis by evaluating household income, costs, and profitability among tenure types and income sources, particularly pointing out the
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65 differences between timber and non-timber forest management. Finally, part three presents a multivariate statistical analysis of the effects of land tenure, economic variables, and non-economic factors on land c over change. The chapte r concludes with a discussion of the main findings. Revising the Research Questions The first research question posed by this study is: how do economic and land cover outcomes compare among the three types of land tenures? The land cover change literature includes studies of land tenure, but studies comparing land cover outcomes among various land tenure types in a given re gion remain very rare. The importance of designing land tenure institutions as an influence on economic and environmental outcomes therefore remains poorly understood. Th is limitation in the land cover change literature is all the more significant because the design of land tenure institutions is something that governments can control, and th e diversity of land tenures in Acre, Brazil, reflects many policy experiments to yield better economic and envi ronmental outcomes from land use. For precisely th is reason, there is great inte rest in Acre, in Brazil and elsewhere, and this interest motivates my first research question in this thesis. The second question addresses an economi c assessment of non-timber and timber forest products among small producers. Since the creation of Resex and agro-extractive settlements, their inhabitants and a series of development programs have concentrated on the economic use of a range of non-timber fore st products. More recently, timber forest management projects have been introduced in several of these areas. The shift from neoextrativismo to florestania is significant not only for the potential consequences on land and forest resource use in different tenure types in Acre, but also for the profitability of timber and non-timber forest products. That said, over the past years an intensive
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66 debate has emerged focusing on potential econo mic risks associated with timber and nontimber resource use within community areas in Acre. Furthermore, economic outcomes from the recent emphasis on timber extraction are a key factor influencing smallholder land use decisions. Therefore, my second resear ch question focuses on the profitability of timber and non-timber resource use. The third question focuses on the factor s best explain fore st clearing among households in Resex, agro-extrative settleme nts, and colonization settlements. Although economic goals have been considered a key co mponent in influencing land use strategies within community land tenure ar eas, various income-defores tation tradeoffs can emerge. For instance, smallholders can use profits to in vest in pasture for cattle, which is a laborsaving strategy utilized by families, but ranching results in more forest clearing. However, by the same token, if forest manageme nt is economically viab le (profitable), it can also stimulate local inhabitants to use the net income to invest in activities that imply to increase deforestation. In working with each of these three que stions I have developed one or more specific expectations (hypotheses): H1: Extractive reserves such as the Chico Mendes Resex will have the most favorable environmental outcome (lowest proporti on of land deforested per household). Colonization will have the best economic outcome (highest gross household income). Agro-extractive settlement will have the best overall outcome (deforestation nearly as low as Resex, and income almost as high as colonization settlement). H2: Non-timber forest products will be more profitable, because of their lower costs, than timber extraction.
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67 H3: Higher profitability lead s to greater deforestation, though land tenure categories will also be important. Land Cover Distribution among Land Tenures This section presents a land cover asse ssment of household landholdings in the three study sites. These results are partic ularly important to evaluate the policy experiments concerning these different la nd tenure models in terms of land cover outcomes. This study thereby provides a co mparative understanding of how land cover varies among the Resex, PAE and PC I visited. In this section I provide the results for my supervised classification of the three land tenure types. Fi rst, I discuss the accuracy assessment. Second, I compare th ree study sites in terms of their land cover distribution. Accuracy Assessment of Land Cover The accuracy assessment evaluates the precis ion of the supervised classification in identifying land cover categories among the study sites. Table 4-1 pres ents the results in the error matrix for the classes of forest, crop land, pasture, and fore st regrowth from the supervised classification. The matrix illustrates both errors of exclusion (omission errors, i.e. degree of Producer’s accuracy), which measures how much of the land in each category was classified correctly, as well as errors of inclusion (commission errors, i.e. degree of User’s accuracy) that measures the pe rcentage of correctly classified pixels in each land cover category of the images (Jense n 2005). The overall accuracy is expressed as a combined percentage of the test-pixels su ccessfully assigned to the correct classes. The results indicate that the classificati on had a high degree of accuracy for the land cover classes ‘crops’, ‘regrowth’, and ‘pasture,’ with 89-96% producer’s accuracy. However, the accuracy for correctly identify ing forest areas was lower, with a 74% producer’s accuracy, which likely resulted fr om the difficulty in classifying bamboo-
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68 dominated forested areas in the study re gion, which can easily be confused with regrowth. Nevertheless, the user Â’s accuracy results for pastur e and crops indicate that my 2004 classification was conservati ve, implying a potential bias toward classifying these land cover categories as forest, resulting in an underestimation of the extent of deforestation. On the whole, one might conclude that because the overall accuracy of the entire classification was quite high (87%) and the producerÂ’s accuracy varied from 90 to 96%, this classification is adequate for anal yzing forest cover in the study areas. Table 4-1. Accuracy assessment for 2004 superv ised classification for the study sites in Acre, Brazil. Class name Reference totals Classified totals Number correct ProducerÂ’s accuracy UserÂ’s accuracy Unclassified 9 70 Forest 39 3329 74.4% 87.9% Pasture 36 4232 88.9% 76.2% Crops 49 5847 95.9% 81.0% Forest regrowth 88 8180 90.9% 98.8% Totals 221 221193 Overall Classificati on Accuracy = 87.3% Comparing Land Cover among Land Tenures Land cover analysis was performed for th e households sampled in the three study sites, each corresponding to a different cate gory of community land tenure. To perform the analysis, it was necessary to identify or estimate the boundaries of land claimed by the sampled households. While boundary data regarding the division among household lots in the Peixoto colonization project we re available from INCRA, the geographic limits of the colocaes in both the Chico Mendes Resex and the Porto Dias PAE had to be estimated using the Thiessen polygon algorithm based on fuzzy set theory.
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69 Before applying this estimation method to the whole data set, the methodology was tested in 5 colocaes in the Porto Dias community. Duri ng that test, rubber tappers of the Porto Dias indicated that their areas had between 3-5 rubber trails1. This results in overall estimates of 300-500 hectares pe r household landholding. Using a GPS unit and guided by rubber tapper household member s and their neighbors, I measured colocao boundaries and on the basis of th ese measurements estimated the total colocao areas to be between 230-560 hectares, indicating a wider range of area than conventional estimates. The colocaesÂ’ shapes resulting from using the Thiessen polygons based on fuzzy set theory were compared to the field da ta and indicated that they were similar to the limits identified with the GPS tracking points. An important implication that can be derive d from these results is that deforestation levels for each rubber tapper area in the Chico Mendes and Porto Dias, if based on the conventional 100 hectare/trail assumption, are likely to be underestimated for some families and overestimated for others. Hence, most previous deforestation estimates and deforestation controls at household levels have likely not been very accurate. This study therefore presents a first attempt to overcome this problem. Using land cover classifications and area l estimation figures for all three study sites, I obtained the results presented in Tabl e 4-2, which shows descriptive statistics for each land cover category. In order to identify the most appropriate metrics to evaluate land cover distributions, I present results for: raw values, percentages, and natural log values. Land cover was categorized in terms of crops, pasture, and regrowth. In addition, I calculated deforestation category summ ing crops, pasture, and regrowth. 1 Rubber trails have been conventionally estimated as covering roughly 100 ha each
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70 Table 4-2: Land cover categorie s at household level, all si tes (n=88), Acre, Brazil. Land cover category Hectares Percentage Log value Deforestation Mean Standard Deviation Skew Crops Mean Standard Deviation Skew Pasture Mean Standard Deviation Skew Regrowth Mean Standard Deviation Skew 29.94 22.45 1.55 8.46 6.31 2.35 20.20 17.32 1.00 1.28 1.68 2.62 16.59 14.46 .68 4.55 3.87 1.22 11.39 11.21 .79 .65 .87 2.24 3.11 .82 -.49 1.92 .69 -.23 2.48 1.21 -.704 -.38 1.27 -.07 While no land cover types presented a high st andard deviation value for all types of measurements, the skewness indicated some deviation from normal-distributions. Skew values close to “0” suggest a normal distri bution. On the one hand, the skew for mean raw and percentage values was positive, which means that their distributions tend to have extreme high-values. On the other hand, skew va lues for logged values were all negative, which indicates that this di stribution tends to have extreme low-values. Based on the findings in Table 4-2, for the remainder of the analysis I focus on the percentages. This is because they have low standard deviations a nd skew values, something lacking in the raw values. Moreover percentages are easier to understand and compare than raw or logged values.
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71 Crops and pasture are the most important land cover categories de forestation in the three study sites. Deforestation overall exhib its a mean of around 30 hectares (~ 17% of total area) per household. This result might i ndicate a total level of deforestation above the 10% authorized by IBAMA and INCRA within Resex and agro-extractive settlements. However, this interpretation ignor es potential differences in the extent of deforestation among land tenure types. The lowest values are for the regrowth cla ss, with a mean of less than 1% of the total area. This result can be explained by the importance of crops and pasture to smallholders. Commonly smallholders tempor arily abandon productive areas to regrowth for 2-5 years, called the pousio period, then they clear, bur n, and reuse the regrowth for crops or pasture (Amaral 1998). The most important results in Table 4-2 ar e twofold. First, per centages are the most appropriate measure to evaluate the distribut ion of land cover in the study sites. Besides the low standard deviations and skew values percentages allow for direct comparisons among the land tenure categories and are easier to interpret. Second, the results show that pasture is the main land use category that co ntributes to overall deforestation. However, the importance of crop cultivation and cat tle ranching may vary among land tenure categories. To assess this possibility, the ne xt step in this analysis compares the percentage of land covers among the three land tenure types. Table 4-3 provides a comparison of land covers among land tenure types in the three study sites. I present Ftests for the significance of differences among the three tenure types. Deforestation percentages are significantly different across land tenure types (p<.01). Although colonist families in Peixoto PC have made efforts to establish
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72 sustainable agrosilvopastoral systems, th is area exhibited th e highest level of deforestation (~ 36%). In contrast to Pe ixoto, the three rubber estates of the Chico Mendes Resex selected in this study exhibited the lowest le vel deforestation percentage (~5%). And in the Porto Dias PAE, th e households sampled had deforestation percentages in between the othe r two land tenures (~12%), but cl oser to the percentage in the Resex than the PC. Table 4-3. Descriptive statis tics for land cover categories, by land tenure type, Acre, Brazil, 2004 Land cover variables Chico Mendes Resex (N=34) Porto Dias PAE (N=27) Peixoto PC (N=27) F-tests Deforestation (%) Crops (%) Pasture (%) Regrowth (%) 4.99 2.32 1.99 .68 12.27 3.13 8.87 .25 35.52 8.75 25.76 1.00 181.543** 48.555** 169.111** 5.560* p<.05, **p<.01 In addition, the percentage areas under crops and pastur e are also significantly different among the three tenure types represen ted in the study site s (p<.01). On the one hand, pasture is the land cover th at contributes most to defo restation in both the Porto Dias and Peixoto sites. In the Chico Me ndes Resex, on the other hand, most forest clearing was for crop production. This indica tes that while rubber tappers of Chico Mendes are focusing their efforts on agricu lture, possibly for th eir subsistence and production of cassava sale, cattle raising emerges in Porto Di as and Peixoto as the most important activity contributing to deforestation. The F-Tests result indicated that the differences among mean percentage for regrowth across land tenures are significant (p < .05), the differences are not as pronounced as for the other land cover categor ies. Porto Dias PAE seems to be the
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73 community with the lowest level of this land cover category (0.25%). In the Chico Mendes Resex, this mean percent value is 0.68%. As regrowth is an area of reserve for potential future use, its extent can be interp reted as an indicator that other areas within landholdings might be been utilized for crops or pasture purposes. In her research in Acre, Ehringhaus (2005) observe d that the overall percent of regrowth area is decreasing due to two parallel processes: 1) as residents invest more in ranching, they are converting young regrowth into pastures, and 2) they are co nverting agricultural fi elds directly into pasture and not letting them la y fallow for the development of new regrowth. Moreover, she noted that residents are also increasingl y establishing new fields in primary forests and less in regrowth areas. These results provide important insights to evaluate the effect iveness of policies underlying each land tenure category with regard to its environmenta l conservation goals. While the Chico Mendes Resex and the Porto Di as PAE were created to establish land concessions for sustainable forest use, the Peixoto PC emerged as an area for agricultural land use, and not forest conservation. The policy goals of coloni zation projects, agroextractive settlements, and extractive reserv es are thus very ev ident in the higher percentage of deforestation in Peixoto th an in Porto Dias and Chico Mendes. This suggests that the land use regul ations institutionalized in ag ro-extractive settlements and extractive reserves, at least as practiced in Porto Dias and Chico Mendes, are effective in reducing deforestation relative to that s een in colonization areas such as Peixoto. This section evaluated land cover in the Chico Mendes Re sex, Porto Dias PAE, and Peixoto PC. Findings from remote sensing indi cated differences betw een the three sites, especially with respect to deforestation fo r pasture and agriculture. The different land
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74 cover profiles of the three tenure categories raise questions about the conservation value of these areas and the household economic decisions being made in the context of different land tenure regulati ons concerning resource manageme nt. In the next section, I therefore address such questions with an analys is of income, costs, and the profitability of different economic activities in the three study sites. Economic Analysis for Land Te nures in the State of Acre This section offers insights into sma llholder land use strategies based on three economic criteria: income, cost, and profitability. First, I will describe the data regarding cash income generation across the three land tenure types. Second, I will compare costs of production for different products. Third, I wi ll concentrate on a prof itability analysis for all product types by category of land tenure. These results will allow a comparison across land tenure types as well as categor ies of products. As forest policies and institutional goals w ithin these land tenure models ha ve sought to enhance economic welfare among households, this analysis can pr ovide an evaluation of the effectiveness of the strategies behind policies constituting diffe rent land tenure types. In particular, this section will compare the three types of altern ative land use strategies implemented in the three land tenure models: timber, non-timber, and agrosilvopastora l production. I will evaluate these strategies economically in terms of their gross income generation, production costs, and profitability, may be quite dissimilar. In addition, I will address the issue of whether these economic outcomes may vary so as to reveal tradeoffs with respect to land cover outcomes. Gross Income Table 4-4 compares gross household inco me among the three land tenure type. Standard deviations were low in most land tenure types. In addition, except for gross
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75 income from livestock within the Chico Me ndes Resex and the total income for Porto Dias PAE, all skew values were larger th an 1.0, which suggests a few “outliers” with high values. Logging is not authorized with in the Chico Mendes Resex by IBAMA and CNPT; therefore I report no income da ta from logging in this area. Table 4-4. Descriptive statis tics for annual income, by land tenure type, Acre, Brazil, 2004 Economic activity Chico Mendes Resex (n=34) Porto Dias PAE (n=27) Peixoto PC (n=27) Crops (US$) Mean Standard Deviation Skew Livestock (US$) Mean Standard Deviation Skew Non-timber (US$) Mean Standard Deviation Skew Timber (US$) Mean Standard Deviation Skew Total (US$) Mean Standard Deviation Skew 181.00 140.00 .33 268.00 176.00 -.11 681.00 427.00 .63 ---1,130.00 495.00 .32 311.00 150.00 1.78 979.00 723.00 1.84 805.00 467.00 .32 1,385.00 1,840.00 .57 3,567.00 1,497.00 -.12 1,763.00 1,433.00 .77 1,931.00 1,879.00 1.19 28.00 61.00 3.00 153.00 736.00 5.15 4,109.00 2,759.00 .71 Three noteworthy differences emerge in Ta ble 4-4. First, as expected, Peixoto had the highest mean total gross income (~ US$ 4,100.00 per year). Livestock as well as crops are the most important products to th e households of this area. Given the high
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76 deforestation percentage in Peixoto, this result indicates an economic-environmental tradeoff, which also casts doubt on the co mmitment to sustainability on which agrosilvopastoral systems were based. In fact, during the fieldwork in 2004, no small farmers reported any income from agrofore stry or from a combined crops-forestry system. Second, households in the Chico Mende s Resex had the lowest mean total gross revenue (US$ 1,130.00 per year). Given the low deforestation percentage in the Resex, this finding also implies an economic-envir onmental tradeoff. But third, Porto Dias stands out, because residents of this area generated a mean gross income of US$ 3,570.00 per year. This is a key finding, because resour ce use in Porto Dias reflects a combined forestry and agrosilvopastoral model, wh ich yields a mean gross household income nearly as high as in the Peixoto colonizati on project, with a deforestation percentage nearly as low as in Chico Mendes Re sex, via a diversified production system. I suggest two possible explanations for differences in cash income generation across land tenure types. First, a householdÂ’s ability to mix multiple income generation strategies contribute s considerably to th e access to various market niches. Second, a combination of prices incentives, distance to market, and local demand may also be key factors affecting these communities. These two interpretations were confirmed during the fieldwork. Rubber tappers of the Chico Mende s Resex concentrated their efforts on the extraction of rubber, a product with lower pr ices, and on harvesting Brazil nuts that bring high prices. In Porto Dias PAE, families did not explore rubber and preferred to devote their efforts to products with hi gh prices, such as Brazil nuts, copaiba oil, forest seeds, and medicinal plants. Peixoto is an area with higher crop and cattle demands from large
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77 ranchers and urban areas, which may have c ontributed to a higher gross income from crops and livestock activities. With the exception of Peixoto, the results confirmed the economic importance of land use strategies based on non-timber and timber production. In the Chico Mendes Resex, non-timber forest management was the la nd use that provided the largest share of mean gross income (~ US$ 690.00 per year). Timber (~ US$ 1,385.00 per year), on the other hand, was the product with the largest share of mean income among rubber tappers of Porto Dias. Further, the mean income obtained from non-timber forest products (~ US$ 800.00 per year) among residents of Porto Di as was higher than income obtained by families in Chico Mendes. Although sustainable forest uses were confir med as the most important activity for rubber tapper communities in Chico Mendes and Porto Dias, the results also indicated livestock as an important activity for all areas. Among residents of Chico Mendes and Porto Dias, this was the second most importa nt activity, with approximately US$ 270.00 and US$ 980.00 of mean gross income per y ear, respectively. In Peixoto, however, livestock was the most impor tant source of income. These results indicate that the residents of ‘sustainable ’ land tenure models such as Resex and agro-extractive settlements rely to a higher extent on forest products for their income. While the average income of these fa milies is lower than those living in the colonization projects, the importance of fo rest-based production is clear. Another important conclusion from these results is that although colonist households of Peixoto have implemented an agrosilvopastoral model in their areas, livestock production remains the most important source of income. At the same time, cattle ranching is also gaining
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78 importance among rubber tapper households, raising new questions regarding the longterm ecological sustainability of Re sex and agro-extractive land tenure. General Cost Analysis While gross income is an important indi cator of economic success of a particular land use, the cost involved among the producti on types is also a key economic variable driving affecting land use decisions in th e different land tenure models. However, economic analyses of land cover change have rarely considered produc tion costs as well as gross incomes generated by land use at the household level. In th e following section I will first focus on cost composition, by providing first an overall cost assessment for households in my sample to identify the ove rall cost patterns. S econd, I will concentrate on a comparative cost assessment among the land tenure types. This discussion will also compare production costs among types of ac tivities carried out by households. This information is important for identifying the le vel of economic viability for each type of product, in the context of specific land tenure types. For instance, it may be useful to assess the viability of implementing agrofore stry system in the Chico Mendes Resex as well as in the Porto Dias PAE. Table 4-5 summarizes the composition of annual mean costs by economic activity for all three communities taken together. Three t ypes of costs are presented in this table. The first column in the table refers to the total cost for each economic activity. The variable costs are expenses that vary according to the volume and intensity of each type of input, such as quantity of labor time, salt for cattle, seeds for pa sture or crops, oil for vehicles, etc. Fixed costs, on the other ha nd, are costs that arise with or without production such as the depreciation of machines and equipment, and other investments in the property. Table 4-5 presents total, fixe d, and variable costs for different economic
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79 activities, namely crops, lives tock, non-timber forest products, timber, and all of these products together. Table 4-5. Descriptive st atistics for annual cost categories, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil, 2004. Economic activity Total Fixed Variable Crops (US$) Mean Standard Deviation Skew Livestock (US$) Mean Standard Deviation Skew Non-timber (US$) Mean Standard Deviation Skew Timber (US$) Mean Standard Deviation Skew Total (US$) Mean Standard Deviation Skew 497.00 373.00 1.83 593.00 622.00 1.86 453.00 442.00 .78 731.00 2,047.00 2.49 2,316.00 2,099.00 1.86 122.50 166.00 2.90 137.50 194.00 4.23 65.00 78.00 2.54 106.00 293.00 2.50 437.00 374.00 2.51 359.00 248.00 1.00 455.00 533.00 2.00 388.00 396.00 .86 626.00 1,755.00 2.50 1,878.00 1,859.00 1.87 As can be seen in Table 4-5, all economic activities had costs with relatively small standard deviations, except th e total and variable costs for timber. The result for timber was strongly influenced by timbe r production costs in Porto Dias. The skew value for the fixed costs for livestock were the highest am ong all categories (4.23), which suggests that the cost values for this category tend to be higher rather than lower. The non-timberÂ’s skew value for total costs, on the contrary, was the lowest value (0.78). Overall, skew
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80 values indicate that the results for all categ ories of products across all cost types tend to be high, indicating “outlier” households th at spend considerab ly more on certain economic activities. All cost types for timber showed high sta ndard deviations, which reflect the high costs of timber management. Certification, tr ansport, road repair s, depreciation of equipment, and a skilled labor force are the e xpenses that have contributed most to higher costs for timber extraction. Three main insights can be drawn from Table 4-5. First, variable costs are the main category of costs for all productive activities Among smallholders in Acre, family labor is the main component of variable costs, a reflection of the importa nce of household labor inputs and the labor-intensity of many of the activities in Table 4-5. Families in the three study sites reported that all family members, including children, adults, and the elderly are engaged in all production activities. Second, timber extraction is ve ry costly and not as econom ically attractive as its high gross incomes seen earlier might sugge st. The mean total cost (~ US$ 730.00 per year) for timber extraction was higher than for livestock (~ US$590 per year), or any other activity. As a result, when rubber tappers compare timber with other economic activities, they are more likely to invest in non-timber forest produc ts or cattle raising instead of timber harvesting. Nevertheless, this may depend on the price incentive from each economic activity. For instance, while the m ean farm gate price for cattle in these areas was US$ 143.00/head, during the same period the price for timber was US$ 115.00/m3. Later in this chapter I will undertak e a profitability analysis, which will further explore this issue.
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81 Third, although timber exhibited the highest total and variable costs, crops and livestock were the activities with highest fixed costs. Two reasons account for this finding. In recent years many households, espe cially in Peixoto, have invested in equipment and assets for cattle and agriculture such as fences and equipment, supported by BASAÂ’s (the Amazonian Bank) credit progr am. This contributed to high depreciation costs for Peixoto households. Rubber tappers participating in the timber forest management, on the other hand, rented skidde rs and other machines from third party companies, thus reducing the costs of depreciation. Three other conclusions may be drawn from the costs analysis in light of household financial well-being as well as the earlier anal ysis of land cover. Fi rst, during the survey the families pointed out that their systems are highly dependent and limited by family labor availability. Second, approximately 80% of the total cost was constituted by variable costs (US$ 1,878.00), which reveals the weak capacity of families to make investments in technologies such as mach ines and other apparatus for reducing labor costs. This situation has been partially overcome with funds and subsidies from organizations such as BASA or the Acre gove rnment. However, this assistance is also likely to increase the fixed costs as well as increasing the demands on family labor that might have to be allocated to generate suffi cient income to repay the credit. The forest government has established programs to dona te equipment for rubbers tappers and colonist families to avoid this cycle of sma llholder debts. The third conclusion relates to the implications of costs for household land use decisions and land cover changes. Both rubber tappers and colonists consider total co sts and labor requirements in their land use activities. In the absence of a family labor reserve and in the pres ence of high production
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82 costs, many households may move toward activi ties that are less labor -intensive, such as cattle raising. As result, this situation may contribute to increase the number of families in debt with fina ncial organizations. The issues that emerged from the cost anal ysis are key aspects for any evaluation of the effect of subsidy policies on household ec onomic welfare as well as land use and land cover change in the state of Acre. Economi c and conservation strategies, then, should take into consideration total costs and especi ally labor costs as key constraints for local producers. However, it is important to take into consideration the variability of costs among land tenure types designed to encour age different land use strategies. Cost Analysis at Community Level In this part I provide th e second part of my cost analysis, examining costs differences across land tenure types. It compar es costs for different economic strategies across households in extr ativist, agro-extractiv ist, and colonist areas. Special attention will be given to the costs of timber and nontimber forest production. In addition, this section aims to briefly discuss why the cost categories for each productive activity differ among land tenure types. These results will pr ovide insight on how costs for each group of products affect household land use decisions and land cover change. Table 4-6 provides mean fixed, variable, and total costs by la nd tenure type and type of product. As anticipated, there are not iceable differences in the production costs among the three land tenure types. F-tests result s indicate that differences of costs for all groups of activities are significant across sites. While Porto Dias was the community with the largest mean total cost (~ US$ 3,900.00 per year), total co sts in Peixoto were nearly as high, whereas the families of Chico Mende s Resex had the lowest relative costs. Although the mean total value for fixed cost was comparable for Peixoto and Porto Dias,
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83 there are differences in the cost compositi on among their productive act ivities, especially for timber. Moreover, it is apparent that th e variable costs comprise the greatest portion of total costs of all economic activities in all three areas. These results again confirm the importance of family labor for all land uses. Table 4-6. Annual mean for cost categorie s, by land tenure type, Acre, Brazil. 2004 Economic activity Chico Mendes Resex (N=34) Porto Dias PAE (N=27) Peixoto PC (N=27) F-tests Crops (US$) Total Cost Fixed Cost Variable Cost Livestock (US$) Total Cost Fixed Cost Variable Cost Non-timber (US$) Total Cost Fixed Cost Variable Cost Timber (US$) Total Cost Fixed Cost Variable Cost Total (US$) Total Cost Fixed Cost Variable Cost 401.00 86.00 315.00 140.00 64.00 76.00 714.00 117.00 594.00 .00 .00 .00 1,252.00 268.00 985.00 303.00 36.00 267.00 689.00 104.00 585.00 549.00 54.00 495.00 2,371.00 339.00 2,033.00 3,914.00 534.00 3,380.00 812.00 255.00 505.00 1,066.00 263.00 803.00 29.00 9.00 21.00 12.00 5.00 7.00 2,057.00 554.00 1,503.00 21.054** 18.089** 8.290* 27.676** 10.226** 22.795** 32.706** 22.325** 27.633** 32.706** 22.325** 27.633** 16.929** 6.423* 18.674** p< .05; ** p< .01 Table 4-6 indicates that live stock production costs varied considerably across sites. While the lowest total cost fo r livestock production was in the Chico Mendes Resex (US$ 140.00 per year), the costs were higher in the Porto Dias PAE (US$ 689.00 per year) and especially in the Peixoto PC (US$ 1,066.00 per year). These increasing costs can be
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84 explained by the relative importance of th is category of production for each community. Notably, pasture degradation has contributed to an increase in the a nnual cost of livestock production for families in Peixoto PC. Table 4-6 also shows that variable costs are the highest costs for all products across all sites. However, soil degradation has been related by colonist families as a key ecological factor negatively affecting the cost s of livestock production within the Peixoto PC. This is an important as it may indicate the potential long-term economic inefficiency of cattle ranching among small farmers in this region. There are two significant differences be tween the Chico Mendes Resex and the Porto Dias PAE. Although crop production wa s the second highest cost category among households of the Chico Mendes after non-timb er forest products, for the Porto Dias families the livestock production costs were the second highest after timber production. There are two likely explanations for these re sults. During the period of this research (2004), the majority of families of Porto Dias were clearing regrowth for pasture, and this task was carried out with family labor, which explains the relatively high mean variable cost for livestock. In contrast to this, many colocaes of the Chico Mendes Resex cleared forest for the production of annual crops which required inte nsive use of family labor as well. For the rubber tapper families, the highest production costs were associated with forest products. In the Porto Dias PAE, the highest production costs stemmed from timber production and to a lesser extent from livestock production. The forest management project implemented by the NGO CTA in this area since 1994 has introduced an entrepreneurial management plan that has involved high economic costs.
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85 Although over the past two years, rubber tappers part icipating in the tim ber initiative in Porto Dias have attempted to reduce costs, e xpenses related to tran sport, depreciation, and hired employees remain high, and represen t a great part of the total costs. This suggests the long-term economic challenged f aced by households participating in timber extraction. Non-timber forest products were th e products with the highest costs in the Chico Mendes Resex. Rubber remains a key activity for many families in this area, but the low concentration of rubber trees per hectare as well as intensive labor inputs required contributed to high variable costs. Although cost may be a key variable affecting household decisions, economic viability is the primary goal of all families. Thus, in the following section, as a third component in the economic assessment I anal yze the profitability of the different productive activities in different tenure areas. Profitability Analysis After analyzing both gross income and costs of different land use strategies within the three land tenure models, here I compar e both income and costs in a profitability analysis for all categories of products across land tenure types. This represents the most important step of the economic analysis b ecause it measures the economic effectiveness of each production strategy implemented by rural households in the study sites. The following analysis not only compares the economic viability of different types of activities, it also identifies which land tenur e type is most effec tive in yielding economic welfare. The results of the profit analysis will also allow us to link profitability to land cover dynamics among land tenure categories. Table 4-7 compares the profitability of crops, livestock, and timber and non-timber forest products among the three tenure types. I calculated profit as gross income minus
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86 total costs for a given activity for each tenur e type. Profit thus indicates the monetary gain or loss to households as a result of th eir economic decision-maki ng in the context of their land tenure category. Nega tive values indicate lost revenue in 2004, whereas positive values constitute profits accumula ted by households. F-tests indicate that differences across sites were significant. Table 4-7. Annual mean for profit for economic categories, by land tenure type, Acre, Brazil, 2004. Economic activity All (n=88) Chico Mendes Resex (N=34) Porto Dias PAE (N=27) Peixoto PC (N=27) F-tests Crops (US$) Livestock (US$) Non-timber (US$) Timber (US$) Total (US$) -125.14 -96.45 -10.22 -870.51 -86.71 -219.87 -132.48 -33.36 -122.54 -17.26 289.96 255.64 -917.21 56.52 -102.17 -213.31 -41.70 140.56 71.83 12.383** 3.597* 4.355* 4.250+ 12.729** + p <.10; p<.05; ** p<.01 The results indicate negative incomes for all economic activities when considering the three study sites as a whole. The total mean profit value was US$ 86.71, which suggests that overall the households sample d incurred an economic loss in 2004. While crops were the category of product with th e weakest economic efficiency (-US$ 125.14), non-timber forest products almost covered th e costs of producti on (-US$ 10.22). Timber, however, was the product with largest econom ic loss. These results indicate that agricultural crops and timber em erge as the products with the lowest economic viability, while non-timber forest products although also showing a loss nearly covered the costs of production. Nevertheless, when we consider profita bility among the three study sites, the findings are more mixed. In examining th e results by study area, the Peixoto PC and Porto Dias exhibit net economic gains overa ll. Their total mean profit value suggests
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87 some economic viability (US$ 71.83 and US$ 56.52 respectively). That said, the activities that proved profitabl e varied among land tenure cate gories. While in Peixoto, timber was the only profitable product, in Po rto Dias, livestock and non-timber forest products were the profitable activities. Crops and livestock were th e categories with the poorest economic performance among colonist s, and livestock production was the second least effective production within all the site s. Soil degradation may be a main factor contributing to increased costs of these activi ties in this area. The excellent profitability for timber extraction (US$ 140.56) in Peixot o in comparison to other activities is explained by its low expenses, in which the costs are reduced via the frequent involvement of local logging companies that pay for a certain amount of timber and provide their skidder to harv est and transport the timber. In contrast, the Chico Mendes Resex has th e lowest economic viability in terms of profitability. In great part, this poor econom ic performance is due to agricultural crop production, which yielded cons iderable financial losses (-US$ 219.87). This might be explained by the very high costs for forest clearing to establis h swidden agriculture. Rubber tappers still utili ze very simple technologies in th e form of machetes for clearing forests, resulting in very high labor costs. S econd, the costs of transport are an important component of the total costs among rubbe r tappers, who on average reside in colocaes around 30 km from the city of Xapuri. Production activities in Porto Dias PAE we re also profitable overall. Although its mean profit was inferior to that of the Peixoto PC, livestock and non-timber forest products demonstrated their ec onomic viability for rubber tappe rs in this area. However, the total costs of timber management, as pres ented earlier, are so hi gh that they greatly
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88 exceed the total gross income from timber. Therefore timber management in this study site compromises the overall economic success of these families. Three groups of factors help explain th is performance for Porto Dias. First, although the average price per head of cattle (US$ 150.00) in this area was similar to the price offered to colonist farmers of Peixoto, the rubber tappers of Po rto Dias have not had the problems with soil degradation found in Peixoto, thus reducing total costs. Second, for non-timber forest products, rubber tappers in Porto Dias concentrated their efforts on Brazil nuts, copaiba, and forest seeds, which are produc ts with relatively high prices and significantly lower produc tion costs than rubber. Third, as po inted out earlier, the type of timber forest management implemented in Po rto Dias, which follows an entrepreneurial management model, has resulted in high operational and implementation costs. This section concludes my economic anal ysis in which I first compared gross income across land tenure types and land uses. I also estimated how fixed, variable, and total costs were distributed among products a nd across communities. Finally, I integrated cost and income data into a profit analysis to evaluate the economic viability of each productive activity across sites. While pub lic polices favoring extrativist, agroextractivist, and colonist house holds have focused on interven tion strategies to generate cash income, the results of this study indicate that the high costs associated with many activities severely limit their economic vi ability. Not only has the timber forest management project in Porto Dias shown in ferior results due to high costs, but the project-driven agrosilvopasto ral system in Peixoto has not yielded favorable economic outcomes for colonists. In this context, non-ti mber forest products do marginally better, almost reaching break-even, however, thes e activities are also unprofitable.
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89 Policies that have been implemented in Resex, agro-extractives reserve, and colonist settlement projects in Acre over the past seven years have attempted to foster land use models that have a better econo mic performance and conserve the natural resource base. However, this study finds that crops and livestock have been an economic strategy employed by rubber tappers families. Moreover, colonist families in Peixoto who have implemented agrosilvopastoral system as an alternative to bring economic gains with lower deforestation have failed. Thes e findings seem to suggest that economic income-deforestation tradeoffs have emerged in these alternative land uses supported by the forest government. Integrating Land Cover and Economic An alyses for Understanding Land Tenure In this section, I evaluate economic a nd non-economic factors that may affect deforestation in the three study sites. Policymakers in Acre ha ve over the past seven years sought a comprehensive approach to balan ce both economic welfare and environmental conservation, but there may be tradeoffs between those goals. In particular, many economic policies have sought to stimulate sp ecific land uses asso ciated with higher levels of profitability as we ll as less deforestation. But th ere may also be important noneconomic factors, such as land tenure types and family labor availability dictated by household life cycles that may also be impor tant for understanding deforestation. In order to address this issue, I conducted a multivar iate regression analysis to examine the various factors that might be related to la nd cover. In the next section I focus on the results achieved from various regression models. In order to gain insights on how economi c and non-economic variables affect the land cover variables, I constructed several multivariate models. I employ several models rather than one due to limitation of sample size restricted the nu mber of independent
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90 variables that could be included in a given model. I developed five models, each derived from a different theoretical position, as a means of identifying key factors affecting deforestation among households in the study site s. I will concentrate my interpretation on policy implications about the significant drivers affecting defo restation in Acre. Table 4-8 presents the first model (i.e., M odel 1). It attempts to evaluate whether differences in land tenure regulations among the study sites account variation in deforestation. The Chico Mendes Resex and Po rto Dias PAE were compared to Peixoto PC, the reference group. As expected, the results pr ovided by this model suggest that deforestation is significantly influenced by t ype of land tenure. The R2 equals 0.81, so tenure type explains 81% of the variation in deforest ation among households in the sample, and the F-test is statistically significant. Coefficien ts for the Chico Mendes Resex and Porto Dias PAE were negative, which implies that in co mparison to Peixoto, those categories of land tenures exhibit lower percen tages of deforestation. Among all sites, however, Chico Mendes seems to be the area with the lowest deforestation percentage, and thus greater efficiency to address forest conservation. The second column of Table 4-8 presents the models for crops regressed on land tenure categories. The model is also very significant (R2 = 0.53) and the largest difference is between Peixoto PC and Porto Dias PAE, which had the smallest crop areas. The third column presents the pasture model in which the largest difference is between Peixoto PC and Chico Mendes Resex. This mo del is also very strong (R2 = 0.80), and suggests that most of the differences in deforested areas across land tenures types are due to differences in pasture areas.
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91 Table 4-8. Site model at land cover type s, all sites (n=88) Acre, Brazil, 2004. Dependent variables Independents variables Deforestation Crops Pasture Regrowth Constant Chico Mendes Resex Porto Dias PAE (Reference Peixoto PC) 35.515** -30.524** -23.245** 8.749** -.6423** -5.609** 25.759** -23.769** -16.883** 1.007** -.332 -.752* R2 .810 .533 .799 .116 F ratio 181.543** 48.555** 169.111** 5.560* p<.05; ** p<.01 The land use regulations in each land te nure is an important explanation of variability in land cover. Federal Decree 2.166 /01 and other Brazilian laws regulate that in colonization lots families are permitted to deforest up to 20% of their area, while in colocaes of Resexs and agro-extractive settleme nts, this percent is only 10% of the total area. Land use management plans a pproved for Chico Mendes established that families are authorized to limit pasture areas to 5% of their total area. INCRA, on the other hand, instituted that deforestation in Porto Dias is limited to 10%, and may not exceed 30 hectares per landholding. Table 4-8 suggests that policies attempti ng to address forest conservation through land tenure regulation may take into consider ation the category and institutional approach addressed in this process. Although various scholars (Wallace 2004, Gomes 2001, Sassagawa 1999) have pointed out the incr easing deforestation in the Chico Mendes Resex, it still remains an efficient land tenur e model to address conservation goals. Porto Dias Resex seems to be a similar success. Ho wever, I have speculate d that deforestation in these land tenures will possibly also be aff ected by family labor availability. In order to address this question I elaborated my second model in this analysis.
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92 Table 4-9 provides a life cycle model with le ngth of residence, age, and number of adults and children as independent variables. Although this model is weak in explaining deforestation (R2 < 0.07), length of residence seems to be a factor negatively affecting on the dependent variables defore station, crops and pasture. Th is suggests that long-time residents tend to deforest less than new arriva ls. This tendency also applies to crops and pasture. Table 4-9. Life cycle model at land cover types, all sites (n=8 8), Acre, Brazil, 2004. Dependent variables Independents variables Deforestation Crops Pasture Regrowth Constant Length of residence Mean age Number of adults Number of children 21.847 -.515* .111 -.181 -.053 6.151* -.128* .039 -.254 .008 14.677* -.389* .077 .106 .106 1.019* -.002 -.004 -.034 -.803 R2 .065 .068 .058 .201 F ratio 1.432 1.514 1.280 .421 p< .05 The life cycle model provides important in sights for forestry policies taking place in Acre over the past seven years. Since it s first mandate in 1999, the forest government has stimulated a return of rubber tappers a nd colonists to their or iginal rural lands, including areas of the Chico Mendes Resex as well as in agro-extractive settlements, and colonist projects located in the Rio Acre watershed. This strategy was established to generate employment and income in rural area s and lessen pressure in urban areas. This policy was also intended to reduce deforestati on. However, the recent arrivals appear to be clearing more forest than th e long-time forest residents. In addition, differences among families in te rms of market integration might be an important explanation for land cover change. I therefore ran a third model to evaluate the
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93 importance of market integration for the exte nt of deforestation. The third model shows the effects of market integration for land cover change. Table 4-10 provides a multivariate model for land cover variables regressed on subsistence income, distance from city, and expenses on purchased goods. Th e subsistence income is an annual value referring to consumption of crops, livest ock, and forest products by all household members. Distance from town refers to k ilometers from a smallholderÂ’s area to the closest town. The expenses va riable refers to the value of all reported goods bought by families for their consumption. The R2 values for all models indicate that market integration provides a weak explan ation for deforestation (0.09 < R2 < 0.29). Family expenses on purchased goods show no si gnificant effects on crops, pasture, or deforestation among smallholders in my sample. However, the F ratio value indicates this model is significant to explain deforesta tion as well as crops and pasture areas. Table 4-10. Market integration model at land cover types, al l sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil, 2004. Dependent variables Independents variables Deforestation Crops Pasture Regrowth Constant Subsistence shadow income Distance from town Expenses on purchased goods 34.901** -.306* -.003* .002 9.00** -.070* -.001* .000 24.209** -.216+ -.003* -.002 1.687* -.019* .000 .000 R2 .281 .225 .248 .087 F ratio 10.410** 7.720** 8.813 2.533+ + p <.10; p<.05; ** p<.01 Two variables, however, seem to be important for deforestation among smallholders selected in this study. First, s ubsistence coefficients indicate that families with higher levels of subsistence have less de forestation. The effect of this variable is more significant for crops than for pasture. Second, distance from city also negatively
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94 affects land cover dynamics among the study sites. This suggests that families close to the cities tend to have a higher percentage of area occupied by crops, pasture, and therefore greater deforestation. Overall, the model indicates that policy initiatives addressing forest conservation might take into consideration the importanc e of subsistence (“shadow”) income and access to markets for deforestation. While road s have been pointed out by many scholars as negatively affecting fore st areas, policy programs focu sing on food security through subsistence income may be an effective m echanism for contributing to environmental conservation. The fourth model (Table 4-11), denomina ted an investment model, assesses whether costs affect land cover outcomes. Specifically, this model estimates how investment priorities among categories of pr oducts can influence forest loss. Except for regrowth, this model shows a good fit fo r all land cover categories, with R2 varying from 0.44 to 0.61. F ratios were significant for all land cover categories. Table 4-11. Investment model at land cover types, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil, 2004. Dependent variables Independents variables Deforestation Crops Pasture Regrowth Constant Total Cost Crops Total Cost Livestock Total Cost Non-Timber Total Cost Timber 16.720** .004* .002* -.007** .000 5.036** .001* .000 -.002** -.000 10.410** .003* .002* -.005** .000 1.274** .000 .000* .000* .000+ R2 .609 .437 .597 .164 F ratio 32.329**16.112** 30.724** 4.058 + p < .10; p< .05; ** p< .01 Costs affect deforestation differently, depending on the economic activity for the costs in question. Total costs for non-timbe r forest products reduced deforestation
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95 because they reduced crops and pasture. This suggests that households with higher costs for non-timber products tend to have smaller areas of crops, pasture and by extension deforestation. Total costs for crops, on the ot her hand, result in positive influences on deforestation, crops, and pasture. The effect of livestock costs on defore station seems to co rroborate the earlier analysis on the forest management-forest clea ring tradeoff taking plac e in Porto Dias and Peixoto. The results for the livestock variable in dicate that areas with higher total cost for livestock tend to have a greater deforested ar ea due to larger pasture areas. Investments in pasture expansion may also foster forest de cline due to abandonment of old areas with soil degradation, which will possibly increase the area occupied by regrowth. The positive effect of total cost for livestock on regrowth confirmed this tendency. Finally, Table 4-12 presents an “assets” m odel to explain deforestation. This model attempts to theoretically evalua te the effect of assets on la nd cover. The results of this model although significant, had a low R2 value. Moreover, the F value of the assets in this model was significant for all land cover categories. Real estate was the only asset category that affected the percentage of deforestation among areas of this study. This effect was mo re significant for deforestation and pasture than for crops. Families with high-value real estate tend to have more pasture and by extension more deforestation. Surprisingly, livestock value and cattle head seems to indicate no effect on forest loss, which may s uggest that deforestation related to cattle will possibly be associated to cattle income and not to number of cattle heads, because families have sold their calves to large farmers. Moreover, pasture degradation in Peixoto, the area with the highest concentrati on of cattle among the la nd tenures selected,
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96 has forced families to sell cattle to avoid losses. In 2004 they re duced their assets of cattle and increased their total incomes. Table 4-12. Assets model at land cover t ypes, all sites (n=88), Acre, Brazil, 2004. Dependent variables Independents variables Deforestation Crops Pasture Regrowth Constant Real estate Livestock Cattle head Machine and equipment 4.3591 .0042** .0000 -.0002 -.5484 2.2523* .0009* -.0000 .0070 -.0003 1.4202 .0027** .0004 -.0053 .0006 .6875* .0000 .0000 -.0015 -.0001 R2 .392 .226 .390 .035 F ratio 13.363** 6.070** 14.935** .750 p<.05; ** p<.01 Conclusion Three hypotheses emerged for this study. Firs t, a land tenure hypothesis posits that Porto Dias PAE may be the most optimal mode l in terms of balancing income generation and forest conservation. Second, a land use hypothesis asserts that non-timber forest management would be more effective econom ically than timber management. Third, a deforestation hypothesis suggests that grea ter economic viability might imply more deforestation. Results provided from this analysis c onfirm all three hypotheses. In comparison with households in the other two land tenure types, rubber tappers of Porto Dias have been able to obtain favorable economic out comes (profit result of US$ 56.52) with a relatively low percentage of deforestation (12%). The second hypothesis was validated in the profitability analysis, in which nontimber forest products (economic loss US$ 10.22) were more economically viable th an timber (economic loss US$ 870.51). And the third hypothesis was confirmed by simu ltaneously examining the profitability of
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97 different land tenures (Table 4-7) and the investment model (Table 4-11), where Peixoto and Porto Dias proved profitable overall, but also exhibited the hi ghest deforestation percentages. That said, while crops and livestock costs were positively related to deforestation, forest management reduced forest clearing despite non-timber products being more economically viable than timber extraction. Other results arise from this analysis. W ith an accuracy of 87%, the land cover analysis identified a pronounced difference in the percent deforest ation in Peixoto PAE (36%) and in the Chico Mendes Resex (5%). While for the Chic o Mendes Resex, the findings indicated crops as the activity infl uencing forest cleari ng, in Peixoto most deforestation was rela ted to pasture. Economic-conservation tradeoffs were, howev er, already visible. While the Chico Mendes Resex is suggested as an efficien t model of forest conservation, its poor economic performance in terms of income gene ration and profitability raise concerns. By the same token, in Porto Dias, the high cost s associated with timb er management, a key component of forest government policies, hindered its otherwise favorable economic performance. In addition, the findings suggest that income may be used to increase deforestation, especially for cattle expansion. Three specific insights arise out of the results of multivariate regression models. First, the land tenure model indicates that land tenure type is a key factor affecting deforestation. Second, the investment model suggests that when smallholders pay high costs and reduce their short-term economic gains, they may re duce forest loss within their areas. This may indicate the potential for e nvironmental service payment programs such as Proambiente and the Chico Mendes Law to be highly effective in compensating
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98 families for the environmental benefits they provide to society. Although the assets model was relatively weak in explaining defo restation, it suggests that families with highvalue real estate have more deforestation. Im portantly, wealth is i ndirectly related to income generation; therefore, the assets model may indicate th at “wealth” may alter family interests in the forest so as to incr ease forest clearing, as noted by Wallace (2004). This conclusion is consistent with findings about subsistence shadow income in the market integration model where subsis tence income reduces deforestation. Three key issues emerge from the findings in this chapter, when taken as a whole. First, a lack of understanding of the live lihood strategies taking place within each land tenure type may contribute to failures of projects and acti ons aiming at “sustainable development.” Second, strategies only focused on economic viability might generate environmental tradeoffs, such as deforest ation for cattle expansion, which may be profitable but destructive and unsustainable Third, lack of ecological and market concerns in strategies implemented in the early 1990s also contributed to unsuccessful initiatives undertaken in these communiti es. These findings may contribute to the establishment of different feedbacks and linkages between research, community, and policymakers. In the following chapter I will conclude this thesis by discussing the implication of this study.
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99 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS: DILEMMAS, IMPLICATIONS, AND FUTURE RESEARCH “In the past we were poor, but happy a nd united rubber tappers, and harvested many products. Today we ar e rich, but unhappy and dis united managers, and yield timber.” Those were words spoken by a rubber tapper during the 2004 fieldwork. He refers to the current dilemmas faced by comm unities in balancing economic growth with their cultural, social, and environmental pract ices. While in the 1980s extractivists, agroextractivists, and colonists emerged as a common social movement to demand land reform in the Amazonia, after their victory in the 1990s, other challenges emerged. Public policies and NGO intervention have attempted to consolidate extr active reserves and agro-extractive settlements as land tenure models for achieving economic and environmental goals. These models have s ought to institutionalize alternative land use strategies focused on non-timber forest produc ts, agrosilvopastoral strategies, and more recently, timber products. Since 1999, the fore st government in Acre has integrated community land tenures and sustainable la nd use strategies into a comprehensive development approach. This study compared economic and land cover outcomes among three different community land tenure types: an extractive reserve, an agro -extractive settlement, and a colonization settlement. I used socioeconomic and remote sensing data for 88 households among these three land tenure types correspondi ng to three study sites in the State of Acre. The Chico Mendes was selected as model of extractive reserve and non-timber forest management. The agro-extractive settl ement model was Porto Dias in which rubber
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100 tappers have implemented an economic stra tegy based on timber management. Last but not least, small farmers of Peixoto were also selected as a model of colonist settlements and agrosilvopastoral management. Three research questions guided this study. First, what are the economic and deforestation outcomes of land uses implemen ted in the three land tenures types? Second, what is the most economically effective fore stry strategy: timber or non-timber? Third, does economic effectiveness all land use strate gies lead to increas ed deforestation, and thus an economic-environmental tradeoff? In addressing these questions I elaborated three hypotheses. First, I expected that Porto Dias PAE would be the most effective land tenure model in terms of generating relatively high gross incomes and favorable profit outcomes while also maintaining forest cover. Second, I expected that non-timber forest management would be more economically effi cient than timber extraction, due to the higher costs and lower profitability of tim ber extraction. Third, I anticipated that economic viability defined in terms of pr ofitability would impl y a higher level of deforestation. In this chapter, I summar ize the main findings and discuss their implications. I also call for a collaborativ e research effort to be implemented in southwestern Amazonia focusing on economic anal ysis of alternative land use strategies. Summarizing Key Findings In collaboration with community organi zations of the study sites, and with personnel in universitie s, NGOs, and governmental agencies, I performed this research in three phases. First, I carried out a colla borative participatory socioeconomic and land cover survey. Second, I classified satellite images of each study site in terms of four basic land cover types: forest, forest regrowth, past ure, and agriculture. Third, I conducted data analysis via descriptive statistics and multivariate regression analysis. Chapter 4
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101 presented these results and pr ovided three key insights regard ing the research questions I pose. First, the extent of defore station varied across land te nures. This variation followed the pattern I had expected. The pe rcentage of deforestation for colocaes of the Chico Mendes Resex was below 5%, Porto Dias ES ha d an intermediary level of deforestation (12%), and in Peixoto this percentage incr eased substantially, to 36%. These results indicated that extractive and agro-extractive m odels were very effective, in comparison to Peixoto, for addressing forest conservation. Second, all three land tenure types compared in this study showed themselves to be economically fragile in 2004. While the findi ngs for mean household profits indicated that Porto Dias and Peixoto were areas with low economic gains in 2004 (US$ 56.52 and US$ 71.83 respectively), among the Chico Mendes households, the situation worse yet, with economic losses (-US$ 122.04). These result s were surprising because previous to these results I had anticipated that forest gove rnment policies implemen ted in the state of Acre since 1999 would contribu te to improved economic viab ility of smallholders. In particular, I analyzed the pr ofitability of sustainable strategies based on forest management and agrosilvopastoral strategi es, but neither was economically successful. On average, the annual profit for non-timber forest products in the Chico Mendes and timber extraction in Porto Dias were –U S$ 33.36 and –US$ 987.21, respectively. Except for in Porto Dias, livestock was also economically ineffective. Third, integrated analysis of economic and land cover variables indicated that forest management implemented within PAEs may be an effective strategy for addressing both economic and conservation goals, since incomes in Porto Dias were nearly as high as
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102 those in the Peixoto colonizati on settlement, while deforestati on in Porto Dias was nearly as low as in the Chico Mendes Resex. That said, some tradeoffs were also evident; Peixoto had higher incomes but also much higher deforestation, and Chico Mendes had low deforestation but also lower incomes. Nonetheless, the non-timber forest product strategy proved more economically viable than timber extraction, even as non-timber forest products cause much less damage to fo rests. And households that were less marketintegrated, with lower costs, and farther fr om towns also exhibited lower deforestation percentages. Consequentl y, polices attempting to combine economic welfare and environmental conservation may be guided by instruments such as the agro-extractive reserve model, non-timber forest management, environmental service payments, and food security programs through subsistence shadow income. As a result, these findings may have various implications which I discuss in the next section of this concluding chapter. Policy Implications Over the past several years, policies impleme nted in the state of Acre have emerged as a new benchmark in Amazonia. Based on two different approaches, neoextrativismo and florestania, sustainable land use strategies implemented by extractivists, agroextractivists, and colonist families, such as forest management and agrosilvopastoral systems, have been core elements in these policies. As the defore station percentages in sampled colocaes of the Chico Mendes Resex and Porto Dias PAE were lower, I have recognized a relative success of these areas in terms of forest conservation. Yet, the land use strategies in all three sites do not app ear to be particularly economically viable. Moreover, I have observed that profitability, especially fo r timber extraction, may imply tradeoffs between forest and income in comm unity land tenure areas (Table 4-10). Based on these findings, I find three main imp lications for public policies in Acre.
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103 Regional integration has been a core component in the second forest government’s mandate (florestania period). The BR-317 road that runs through the Rio Acre watershed region, in which almost 50% of its territory is covered by extractive reserves, agroextractive settlements, and colonist settlemen ts, may become one of the most important highways in South America for commodity expo rts. My market integration model (Table 4-10) indicated that access could be a key driver of deforestation among community land tenures. However, as indicated by the land tenu re model (Table 4-9), the negative effects of roads might be reduced whether extractive reserves or agro-extractive settlements are established bordering the Pacific highway. This initiative might be also followed by state enforcement of tenure rules limiting forest clearing among those residing in Resexs and PAEs. This is because the life cycle model (Table 4-9) indica ted that newer arrivals in such land tenure types tend to de forest more than long-time resident households. In fact, the forest government has advocated the es tablishment of “green roads” along which zones of sustainable economic use might be created (Governo do Estado do Acre 2005). However, these green zones will be based on the timber forest management model already implemented in eastern Acre (R ego 2004), which based on my analysis is economically ineffective and may produce tradeoffs if local residents have to bear all of the costs (Table 4-7). Forest management policies implemented by the government of Acre were based on non-timber forest management in its first mandate and timber products in its second term of office. While non-timber products in Acre have had unstable demand and price fluctuations (Governo do Esta do do Acre 2001), the timber mark et has been characterized by increasing demand and high prices (Br ilhante 2001). Although timber products had a
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104 market advantage in comparison with non-ti mber, the timber forest management model implemented in Porto Dias also generated trad eoffs (Table 4-7) and involved very high costs to communities. With economic gains from this product, rubber tappers have invested in cattle as a strategy of cash ge neration to face their decline in subsistence shadow income. Meanwhile, other non-timber fore st products have actually proven to be more economically viable due to their lower co sts, as well as less damaging to the forest. Cost compensation has been a strategy utilized by the forest government since its first mandate to reimburse rubber tappers for their high costs in harvesting forest products. This initiative is known as the Ch ico Mendes Law or Rubber Subsidy and is constituted by paying a subsidized price for r ubber. In fact this st rategy is a type of environmental payment that compensates rubber tappers for their hi gh cost of harvesting rubber trees. The investment m odel (Table 4-11) analyzed in this study indicated that if cost compensation is expanded to all community land tenure types in this state, in which other products besides rubber are included, th is initiative might tend to reduce the tendency for forest clearing. That is because fa milies would not be stimulated to deforest in their attempts to reduce costs. By the same token, smallholders should not move to activities with low costs and high defo restation, such as cattle or crops. Although this study identified key gaps a ffecting economic viability and forest clearing across three selected land tenures types, how can these results proactively contribute to create alternatives for these communities? The findings themselves will not be sufficient to foster alternatives models with superior economic viability and effective for addressing conservation. These results, how ever, can be added to a collective and participatory effort to subsidize forest ma nagement and agrosilvopastoral initiatives
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105 implemented by community land tenures in the st ate of Acre. I recognize that the success of this coalition will depend on our ability to integrate public policies, participatory planning involving stakeholders, and research for collaborative environmental planning. Particularly, research and capacity build ing efforts addresse d by Brazilian and international organizations in southwestern Amazonia will be funda mental in supporting initiatives for alternative land use strategies that are economically viable and environmentally sustainable. In the followi ng section of this concluding chapter I will focus on research implications of these results. Emergent Questions for Community Land Tenure in Acre Based on these results, and whether new polic ies or other initiatives take place, I anticipate three scenarios for the land tenures studied in this thesis. First, taking into consideration the attractive le vel of prices for dairy produc ts and local demand for crops, small farmers, especially in Peixoto, will likely be stimulated to maintain their investments in cattle and crop production. However, they emphasized during the fieldwork that the high cost of production fo r crops and pasture as a result of soil degradation will emerge as a constraint fo r them. But stimulated by the market, they might nonetheless increase their deforested areas in order to establish new fields for crops and pasture. Second, although during the firs t three years of the timber forest management project, rubber tapper s in Porto Dias felt themselves at tracted by potential gross income gains, they have been disappointed with the high cost related to th is activity. Moreover, as this area is located in the same municipali ty in which Peixoto is located, and they have been influenced by crops and dairy production demand taking place in that area. All these factors may also stimulate forest clearing in Porto Dias. If costs for timber extraction are
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106 reduced, the profitability of timber will increase, but househol ds will tend to invest in cattle and will likely still deforest. The scenario for Chico Mendes Resex s eems more complex. The profitability analysis among the households of this area indicated that al l productive activities were economically ineffective. However, househol ds were able to obtain livelihoods with lower percentages of deforestation compared to Porto Dias and Peixoto. Although labor family is an important component in househol d costs, reducing costs of transportation from the Resex may be a key component to move rubber tappers toward a more profitable model of land tenur e. Households in the Chico Mendes Resex seem more concentrated on food security efforts, so I anti cipate that deforestati on will be affected by both crop and pasture expansion. Guided by these findings and my experience in this region, despite the land reforms after the 1980s and supportiv e policies of the forest government since 1999 households residing in all of the land te nure categories studied here still face important challenges in terms of their profitability as well as thei r environmental sustai nability. Is economic effectiveness compatible with traditional land uses of smallholders, which have implied forest conservation? What are the implica tions of alternative land uses for household livelihood systems? Can profitability be co mpatible with multiple use forestry? Can ecological constraints, such as soil degrad ation taking place in Pe ixoto, be addressed? How have economic and land cover dynamics, across community land tenures, varied over the forest government period in Acre ? These questions go beyond purely economic analyses, and require a larger collaborative effort invol ving contributions from many disciplines.
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107 APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE USED IN THE CHICO MENDES EXTRACTIVE RESERVE
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151 APPENDIX D CIPEC TRAINING SAMPLE PROTOCOL Observation type: Within-site Edge Vantage RESEARCH ID: COUNTRY ID: SITE ID: RANDOM SAMPLE TS #: _____ OPPORTUNISTIC TS#_____ TODAY'S DATE (mm/dd/yr):__ /____/00 LOCAL TIME______ COLLECTORÂ’S NAME/EMAIL:________________________ TS AREA NAME / OWNER NAME (if applicable)______________________________ IMAGE PRODUCTS USED: Image ID/dates: Color Composite Used: R= 5, G=4 B=3 GEOGRAPHIC COORDINATES IN FIELD: UTM Northing (X )_________________ [m] UT M Easting (Y):_________________ [m] UTM Zone 16 Datum NAD27 GPS INFO: FILE NAME:______________________________ PDOP:_____________ Garmin Unit #:_________________ LOCATION OF PLOT TOPOGRAPHICALLY: Ridge_____ Slope______ Flat______ Steepness of Slope:______ (0-90 ) Azimuth (downhill direction of maximum slope in which water would naturally run)_____ (0-360 ) ELEVATION ____________meters above sea level (altimeter reading)
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152 DIAGRAMS OF GENERAL OBSERVATIONS: S how GPS points, North & training sample area in relationship to features. Aerial View | Profile Diagram ( parallel to maximum slope) | | | | | | | | | (land marks, north arrow and scale bar) | (dra w of vegetation and sl ope, vertical scale) LAND COVER TYPE (put a check mark next to land cover type or write in others): EXISTING VEGETATION TYPE DISTURBED: AGRICULTURE PLANTATION: Semi-deciduous broadleaf forest SS 1 (initial succession) Broadleaf crop Mixed semi-dec. forest (needle/broad) SS 2 (intermediate succession) Wood perennial fruit crop Mountain needleleaf forest SS 3 (advanced succession) Agroforestry/crops Cloud forest Disturbed forest (l ogging) Agroforestry/pasture Grassland Burned field Pasture Tall grasses and shrubs Quarry/Gravel pit Pasture wi shrubs/woody regrowth Other: Forest with cleared understory Bare soil Other: Stubble field Plowed field INFRASTRUCTURE: Crops Urban area Crops Rural settlement Crops Gravel Other: Other: If existing vegetation is secondary, give original vegetation if known:________________
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153 VEGETATION STRUCTURE ESTIMATES : [ N/A:_____ No vegetation in sample] Use ground cover estimate sheet to near est 5%: % he rbaceous ____ ; % litter, ____; % soil ____; % rock ____ Canopy closure: ______% cover Av erage canopy height:___________m, Height of emergent tree s:__________m No trees:_____ Average DBH of canopy trees: 2-10 cm___; 10-20 cm____; 20-30cm____; 30-50 cm____; 50-70 cm____; 70cm-1m____; > 1m ____ Average DBH of emergent trees: 210cm___; 10-20 cm____; 20-30 cm____; 30-50cm____; 50-70 cm____; 70cm-1m____; > 1m ___ Presence of Saplings: Absent _____, Few _____, Moderate_____, Abundant _____ Presence of Seedlings: Absent_____, Few _____, Moderate_____, Abundant _____ Presence of Epiphytes: Absent_____, Few _____, Moderate_____, Abundant _____ Presence of Succulents: Absent _____, Few _____, Moderate_____, Abundant _____ Presence of Others: ______ Absent _____, Few _____, Moderate_____, Abundant _____ DOMINANT SPECIES (Sci. names; common names) ________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ PRESENCE OF MANAGED SPECIES (agricultu re, agroforestry, plantation): Number of managed species (inc. planted)_____ Sci. Name (Family/Genus/Species):_____________ Common name:__________________ Density: Few _____, Moderate_____, Abundant ________ Sci. Name (Family/Genus/Species):___________ Common Name:__________________ Density: Few _____, Moderate_____, Abundant _____ Other Observations:_______________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________
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154 LAND USE HISTORY (Fill out as far back in time as possible, recording dates of change to forest, pastur e, crop, plantation, etc.): Time period (mm/yr) Land Cover/Land Use Informant :______ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ESTIMATED AGE OF LAND COVER IF NO INFORMANT IS AVAILABLE:______ GENERAL OBSERVATIONS: Photos: Roll #:__________ Exposures # / direction (N, S, E, W, Sky, Ground):_______________________________ Seasonal change affects land use or la nd cover: No____ Yes____ If yes, explain:_____________________________________________ Training sample marked on image products: No___ Yes___ If no, explain:____________________________________________________________ Other Comments:_________________________________________________________
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155 LIST OF REFERENCES Allegretti, M. 1990. Extractive re serves: an alternative for reconciling development and environmental conservation in Amazonia. In: Alternatives to Deforestation: Steps toward Sustainable Use of the Amazonia Rain Forest. A.B. Anderson (Eds.). New York, NT, Columbia University Press, 252-264. Amaral, E.F. 1998. Levantamento de Solos no Sistema de Capacidade de Uso em Nvel de Pequena Propriedade Rural: o Caso do PED, Municpio de Senador Guimoard, Acre. Rio Branco, Embrapa-CPAF/AC. Anderson, A.B. 1990. Alternatives to Deforestation: St eps Toward Sustainable Use of the Amazon Rain Forest. New York, Columbia University Press. Angelsen, A. 1995. Shifiting cultivation and deforestation: study from Indonesia. World Development. 23(3), 1713-1729. Anselin, L. 2001. Spatial effects in econometric practices in environmental and resources economics. American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 83(3), 705-710. Arajo, H.J.B and L.G. Silva. 2000. Lista de espcies florestais do Acre: ocorrncia com base em inventrios florestais. Rio Branco-Acre, Embrapa-CPAFAC. Bakx, K. 1988. From proletatian to peasant: rural transforma tion in the State of Acre, 1870-1986. The Journal of Development Studies. 24(2), 141-160. Barros, H. and F. Estcio, 1972. Economia da Empresa Agrcola. Nova Lisboa, Universidade de Luanda. BID (Banco Internamericano de Desenvolvimento) Project. 2002. Program de Desenvolvimento Sustentvel do Acre: Nota Tcnica do Governo do Estado. Rio Branco-Acre, SEPLAN. (www.ac.gov.br). Accessed on June 2005. Blaikie, P. and H. Brookfield. 1987. Land Degradation and Society. London, Methunen. Browder, J.O. 1990. Extractive reserv es will not save the tropics. BioScience. 40(1), 626645. Bryant, R.L. and S. Bailey. 1997. Third World Political Ecology. London, Routledge. Cardoso, F.H. and G. Mller. 1977. Amaznia: Expanso do Capitalismo. So Paulo, Editora Brasiliense.
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156 Carpentier, C.L., S.A. Vosti, and J. W itcover. 2000. Intensified production systems on western Brazilian Amazon settlement fa rms: could they save the forest? Agricultural Ecosystem Environment. 82(3), 73-88. Carvalho, G.O., D. Nepstad, D. McGrath, M. del Carmem Vera Dias, M. Santilli, and A.C. Barros. 2002. Frontier expansion in the Amazon: balancing development and sustainability. Environment. 44(3), 34-42. Cattaneo, A. 2001. Deforestation in the Brazi lian Amazon: comparing the impacts of macroeconomic shocks, land tenu re, and technological change. Land Economics. 77 (2), 219-240. Cavalcanti, T.J.S. 1994. Colonizao no Acre: uma Scio-Econmica do Projeto de Assentamento do Assentamento Dirigido “Pedro Peixoto”. Fortaleza, Cear, Universidade Federal do Cear. (Master’s Thesis). Cronkleton, P. 1998. Landownership Turnover and Fam ily Farm Survival in an Amazon Resettlement Project. Gainesville, University of Florida (Ph.D. Dissertation). Daly, D. C. and M. Silveira. 2001. Affinities of the Acre Flora: A First Analysis. Rio Branco-Acre, UFAC-NYBG. (Unpublished work). Dragi evi S. 2005. Multi-dimensional interpola tions with fuzzy sets. In Fuzzy Modeling with Spatial Information for Geographic Problems. F.E. Petry, V.B. Robinson, M.A. Cobb (Eds.). New York, Springer. Ehringhaus, C. 2005. Pos-victory Dilemmas: Land Use, Development and Social Moviment in Amazonian Extractive Reserves. New Haven, USA, Yale University. (Ph.D. Dissertation) ELI (Environmental Law Institute). 1994. As Reservas Extrativistas do Brasil: Aspectos Fundamentais de sua Implantao. Washington, D.C, ELI. Ellis, F. 2000. Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in Developing Countries. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Esteves, B.M.G. 1999. Do Manso ao Guardio da Floresta: Estudo do Processo de Transformao Social do Sistema Seringal a partir do Caso da Reserva Extrativista Chico Mendes. Rio de Janeiro, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. (Ph.D. Dissertation) FUNTAC (Fundao de Technologia do Estado do Acre). 1999. Diagnstico do Setor Florestal do Estado do Acre: Monito ramento da Cobertura Florestal, Desmatamento e Uso da Terra. Rio Branco-Acre, FUNTAC. Gastal, E. 1980. Enfoque de Sistemas na Programao da Pesquisa Agropecuria. Braslia, UFCE.
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157 Geist, H.J. and E.F. Lambin, 2002. Proximate cause and underlying driving forces of tropical deforestation. BioScience. 52 (2), 143-150. Godoy, R., R. Lubowiski, A. Markandya. 1993. A method for the economic valuation of non-timber tropical forest products. Economic Botany. 47(2), 220-233. Godoy, R., M. Jacobson, and D. Wilkie. 1998. Strategies of rainforest dwellers against misfortunes: the Tsimane Indians of Bolivia. Ethnology. 37 (1), 55-70. Gomes, C.V.A. 2001. Dynamics of land use in an Amazoni an extractive reserve: the case of the Chico Mendes extractive reserve in Acre, Brazil. Gainesville, University of Florida. (MasterÂ’s thesis). Governo do Estado do Acre. 2000a. Zoneamento Ecolgico-Econmico: Aspectos Socioeconmicos e Ocupao Territorial. Rio Branco-Acre, SECTMA. Governo do Estado do Acre. 2000b. Zoneamento Ecolgico-Econmico: Indicativos Para a Gesto Territorial do Acre. Rio Branco-Acre, SECTMA. Governo do Estado do Acre. 2005. Potential I nvestments for Acre and its Boundaries. In Forum for Sustainable Development of the Acre. Rio Branco-Acre, SEPLANDS. Guerreiro, E. 1994. Caracterizao, Tipologia, e Di agnstico de Sistemas de Produo Predominantes em uma Comunidade Rural: o Caso de Cerro da Ponte Alta, Irati, PR. Londrina, IAPAR Hecht, S.B. 1985. Environment, development, and politics: capit al accumulation and livestock sector in eastern Amazonia. World Development. 13 (6), 663-684. Hildebrand, P.E. and M. Schmink. 2004. Agroforestry for improved livelihoods and food security for diverse smallholders in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 1st World Agroforestry Congress. Orlando, University of Florida. Homma, A.K.O. 1993. Extrativismo vegetal na Amaz nia: Limites e Oportunidades. Braslia, EMBRAPA/SPI. Homma, A.K.O. 1989. Reservas Extrativista: uma Op o Vivel de Desenvolvimento para Amaznia? Belm, Par Desenvolvimento. IDB (Inter-American Development Bank). 2002. Acre Sustainable Development Program. Loan Proposal. Washington, Inter-American Development Bank. (www.idb.org). Accessed on August 2005. IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatstica).1998. Censo Agropecurio 19951996. Rio de Janeiro, IBGE. INCRA (Instituto Nacional de Colonizao e Reforma Agrria). 1999. Evoluo da Estrutura Agrria do Agrria do Brasil. Braslia, INCRA.
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158 Jensen, J.R. 2005. Introductory Digital Image Proce ssing: A Remote Sensing Approach. Saddle River, NJ, Prentice-Hall. Kageyama, P. 2002. Ganhos na seleo para a produtividade de ltex em populao natural de hevea brasiliensis na Reserva Chico Mendes: estudo de caso da IAPs (Ilhas de Alta Produtividade). Scientia Florestalis. 61(1), 79-85. Kageyama, P., D. Caron, F. Gandara, K. Mar tins, L.H. Oliveira, C.M.B. Lacerda, N. Teresinha Boufleuer, L. Arruda Riba s, A.M. Moreno, and E.M. Ferraz. 2004. Genetic and Ecological Aspects of Nonwood Forest Product Exploitation in two Western Amazonian Settlements. In IPGRI (International Plant Genetic Resource Institute). Challenge in Managing Forest Gene tic Resources for Livelihoods. Rome, Italy, IPGRI. 149-165. Kaimowitz, D. and A. Angelsen. 1998. Economic Models of Tropical Deforestation: a Review. Indonesia, CIFOR. Kainer, K., M. Schmink, A.C.P. Leite, and M. J. Fadel. 2003. Experiments in forest-based development in Western Amazonia. Society & Natural Resources. 16(1), 869-887. Lambin, E.F., B.L. Turner, H.J. Geist, S. B. Agbola, A.Angelsen, J.W. Bruce, O.T. Coomes, R. Dirzo, G. Fischer, C. Folke, P.S. George, K. Homewood, J. Imbernon, R. Leemans, X. Li. 2001. The causes of la nd-use and land-cove r change: moving behind myths. Global Environmental Change. 11 (1), 261-269. Lorena, R.B. 2003. Evoluo do Uso da Terra em Poro da Amaznia Ocidental (Acre), com Uso de Tcnicas de Deteco de Mudanas. So Jos dos Campos, INPE. (Master’s Thesis). Maciel, R.C.G. 2003. Ilhas de Alta Produtividade: Inovao Essencial para a Manuteno dos Seringueiros nas Reservas Extrativistas. Campinas, UNICAMP. (Master’s Thesis) Mafra, R.C. 1988. Agricultural Tropical: Curso de Especializao por Tutoria a Distncia. Braslia, UnB. Martin, N.B. 1995. Aplicativo “Custos”: Sistema de Custo de Produo Agrcola, Verso 1.1. So Paulo, IEA/EMBRAPA/FUNDEPAG. Martinello, P. 1988. A “batalha da borracha” na segunda guerra mundial e suas conseqncias para o vale amaznico. Rio Branco-Acre, Universidade Federal do Acre. Melatti, J.C. 1993. ndios do Brasil. So Paulo, Hucitec; Braslia, Editora UNB. Menezes, R.S. 2004. A Importncia da Reserva Legal na Gerao de Renda de Pequenos Produtores Rurais: Estudo de Caso no Estado do Acre, Amazonia. Curitiba, Universidade Federal do Paran. (Master’s Thesis).
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159 Mertens, B., W. D. Sunderlin, O. N doye, and E. F. Lambin. 2000. Impact of Macroeconomic Change on Deforestation in South Cameroon: Integration of Household Survey and Remotely Sensed Data. World Development. 28 (2), 983– 999. Mertens, B., R.Poccard-Chapuis, M.G. Pikett y, A.E. Lacques, and A. Venturieri. 2002. Crossing spatial analyses and livestock economics to understand deforestation processes in the Brazilian Amazon: the case of So Flix do Xing in south Par. Agricultural Economics. 27 (3), 269-294. Mesquita, G. 1977. Evidncias apresentada para a Comi sso de Agricultura da Cmera dos Deputados. Brasilia, Dirio do Congresso Nacional. Michelotti, F. 1993. Estratgias para o Desenvolvimento Comunitrio na Reserva Extrativista Porto Dias. So Paulo, Universidade de So Paulo. (Relatrio de Graduao) MMA (Ministrio do Meio Ambiente). 2001. Avaliao e Identificao de Aes Prioritrias para a Conservao, Ut ilizao Sustentvel e Repartio dos Benefcios da Biodiversidade na Amaznia Brasileira. Braslia, Ministrio do Meio Ambiente. MMA (Ministrio do Meio Ambiente). 2001a. Projeto RESEX – Realatrio 1995-2000. Braslia, Ministrio do Meio Ambiente. Murrieta, J.R. and R.P. Rueda. 1995. Reservas Extrativistas. Reino Unido. Cambridge. UICN, CCE, CNPT. Nepstad, D.C., and S. Schwartzman. 1992. In troduction: non-timber products from tropical forests: evaluati on of a conservaion and development strategy. In Nontimber products from tropi cal forests evaluation of a conservation and development strategy. Advances in Economic Botany. D.C. Nepstad, and S. Schwartzman, (Eds.). New York, The New York Botanical Garden. Oliveira. L.A.P. 1985. O Sertanejo, o Brabo e o Posse iro: cem anos de andanas da populao acreana. Rio Branco-Acre, Governo do estado do Acre. Padoch, D. and W. Jong. 1989. Production and prof it in agroforestry: an example from the Peruvian Amazon. In: Fragile Lands of Latin America: Strategies for Sustainable Development. Browder, J.G. (ed.). Boul der, CO, Westview Press Paula, E.A. 2003. Estado e desenvolvimento insusten tvel na Amaznia Ocidental: dos missionrios do progresso aos mercadores da natureza. Rio de Janeiro, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. (Ph.D. Dissertation) Peet, R. and M. Watts. 1996. Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements. London, Routledge.
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160 Perz, S.G. 2001. From sustainable developmen t to “productive conservation:” forest conservation options and agriculture inco me and assets in the Brazilian Amazon. Rural Sociology. 66(1), 93-112. Peters, C.M., Gentry, A.H. and Mendelsohn, R.O. 1989. Valuation of an Amazonian rain forest. Nature. 339(1), 655-656. Peterson, G. 2000. Political ecology and ecologica l resilience: an integration of human and ecological dynamics. Ecological Economics. 35 (2), 323-336. Pinedo-Vasquez, M., Zarin, D., Jipp, P. 1990. Economic returns from forest conversion in the Peruvian Amazon. Ecological Economics. 6(1), 163-173. Rego, J.F. 1999. Amaznia: do extra tivismo ao neoextrativismo. Cincia Hoje. 25(2), 6265. Rego, J.F. 2003. Anlise Econmica dos Sistemas de Produo Familiar Rural da Regio do Vale do Acre – 1996/1997. Rio Branco-Acre, Universidade Federal do AcreSEBRAE-The Ford Foundation. Rego, J.F. 2004. Referencial do Zoneamento Ecolgico-Econmico do Acre – Fase II. Rio Branco-Acre. IMAC. (unpublished). Rodrigues, E. 2004. Vatangem Competitiva do Ecossistema na Amazia: o Cluster Florestal do Acre. Braslia Universidade de Bras lia. (Ph.D. Dissertation). Rueda, R.P. 1995. Evoluo Histrica do Extrativismo. In Reservas Extrativistas. J.R. Murrieta and R.P. Rueda. Cambridge, UICN, CNPT. Sassagawa. H.S. 1999. Desmatamento na Chico Mendes. So Paulo, INPE. (Master’s thesis). Schmink, M. 1984. Hosehold economic strate gies: review and research agenda. Latin American Research Review. 19(3), 87-101. Schmink, M. and C.J. Wood. 1987. The Political Ecology of Am azonia. Lands at Risk in the Third World: Local-Level Perspectives. Boulder, Westview Press. Schwartzman, S. 1989. Extractive reserves: the rubber tappers’ strategies for sustainable use of the Amazon rain forest. In: Fragile Lands In latin America: Strategies for Sustainable Development. J.O. Browder. Boulder, CO, Westview Press, 150-165. SEPLANDS (Secretaria de Planejamen to e Desenvolvimento Sustentvel). 2005. Forum de Desenvolvimento Suste ntvel do Estado do Acre: Investimentos Potenciais para o Acre e Regio. SEPLANDS. (www.ac.gov.br). Accessed on September 2005. Silva, A.F. 1990. Razes da ocupao recente das terras do Acre: movimento de capitais, especulao fundiria e disputa pela terra. Rio Branco-Acre, Casa da Amaznia.
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161 Silveira, M., N.M.C. Paula, I.F. Brown, H. Bruno, N. Borges, D. Daily, and L.A. Ferreira. 1997. Os ‘buracos negros’ da diversidade. Cincia Hoje. 22 (128), 64-65. Simmons, C.S. 2004. The political economy of land conflict in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 94(1), 183-2006. Sobrinho, P.V.C. 1992. Capital e Trabalho na Amaznia Ocidental: Contribuio Histria Social e das Lutas Sindicais no Acre. So Paulo, Editora Cortez. Souza, F.K.A. 2001. Pasture instead of rubber? The ranching tendencies of family-based agriculture in extractive reserves and colonization projects in Acre, Brazil, Southwestern Amazonia. Annals of Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global environmental Change Research Community. Rio de Janeiro, CIESIN. Thorner, D., B. Kerblay, and R.E.F. Smiths (eds.) 1986. Chayanov on the theory of peasant economy. Madison, University of Winsconsin Press. Tomich, T., M.V. Noordwijk,, S. Vosti, and J. Witcover. 1998. Agricultural development with rainforest conservation: methods for seeking best bet alternatives to slashburn, with application to Brazil and Indonesia. Agricultural Economics. 19(3), 159174. Valentim, J.F., E.F. Amaral, M. Cavalcan te, M. Fazolin, S.S.V. Caballero, R.M. Boddery, R.D. Sharma, A.W.F. Melo. 2000. Diagnosis and potential socioeconomic and environmental impacts of pasture death in the western Brazilian Amazonia. LBA Meeting. Manaus, LBA Program. Vosti, S.A., E.M. Braz, C.L. Carpentier, M.V.N. D’Oliveira, and J. Witcover. 2003. Rights to forest products, deforestation a nd smallholder income: evidence from the western Brazilian Amazon. World Development. 31(11), 1889-1901. Walker, R. 2003. Mapping process to pattern in the landscape change of the Amazonian frontier. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 93(2), 376-398. Wallace, R.H. 2004. The effects of Wealth and Ma rkets on Rubber Tapper Use and Knowledge of Forest Resource in Acre, Brazil. Gainesville, University of Florida. (Ph.D. Dissertation). Weinstein, B. 1983. The Amazon Rubber Boom: 1850-1920. Stanford, Stanford University Press. Wollenberg, E., D. Edmunds, and J. Ande rson. 2001. Accomodation multiple stakeholder interests in local forest management. International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance, and Ecology. 1(2), 193-198.
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162 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Francisco Kennedy Arajo de Souza was rais ed in Rio Branco, the capital of the state of Acre, Brazil. His pa rents are Apurinan, an indige nous people in the Amazon, and one year before he was born, in 1969, they migrated with many of his family members from Camicu, today an indigenous reserve in Amazonas, to Rio Branco. Since 1993 he has worked as a staff member at the Fede ral University of Acre (UFAC), where he received a B.S. in economics in 1998. After finishing his undergraduate degree, he was led to collaborate with research programs at UFAC. Since 1999 he has managed various research and capacity building programs in the Amazon. Over the past two years he has collaborated with the Large-Scale Biosphere Atmosphere in Amazonia (LBA) Program funded by NASA and the Brazilian government He has also collaborated with other programs funded by USAID, the Inter-Ame rican Development Bank, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), th e Ford Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, International Tropical Timber Organizati on, and the Brazilian government. In 2001, he was awarded a fellowship for masterÂ’s stud ies in the United States from the Ford Foundation International Fellowship Program (IFP). Upon completion of his MasterÂ’s degree in Latin American studies with a c oncentration in tropi cal conservation and development at the University of Florida, he will work as a researcher at UFAC.
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