Dynamics of land use in an Amazonian extractive reserve : the case of Chico Mendes extractive reserve in Acre, Brazil / by Carlos Valério Aguiar Gomes.

Tese (M.S.)--University of Florida, 2001.

Since the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve (CMER) was established, different levels of land use change have taken place as a response to local and regional economic forces and prevailing social stresses. The following study addresses these changes and their drivers by analyzing key household characteristics and socio-economic factors. This study provides both a household and a rubber tapper estates (seringal) level approach of measuring land-use changes. Based on remote sensing methods, four seringais with the highest deforestation rates were selected as the focus of analysis. The reserves' census data on all residents of the four seringais was analyzed for three different periods (1995/1998/2000). In addition, in-depth interviews were carried out with 66 households. The household-level analysis was based on the data gathered from the 66 families, whereas at the seringal-level the research explores census data. The former approach considers three groups of independent variables: background of household head (migrant status and age), labor force availability (sons of the household head) and location of the seringais. These were then measured in relation to six outcome variables per settlement: rubber and Brazil nut production, size of swidden plot, size of pasture, head of cattle and total area deforested. The serinigal level analysis concentrated on three main factors: population, settlement dynamic, and changes in the rubber tapper production systems. Household level findings shows that the age of the household heads and the locations of the seringais have a strong association with rubber and Brazil nut production, which suggest that older household heads tend to engage in forest activities. The availability of sons of household heads exerts a strong effect on pasture and cattle raising activities, which suggests that non-forest activities tend to be carried out by the young residents. The migrant status accentuates agricultural activities, implying that nonmigrant households tend to engage in forest activities. Seringal level findings reveal that population density have increased significantly in the four seringais. In addition, it shows a crucial process in occupation of space within these seringais is increasing the subdivision of the settlements. Moreover, rubber tapper production system has been increasingly transformed from extractive to agricultural and pastoral production activities. These increases in population density, number of settlements and change in the production systems accelerate deforestation, which will pose a serious dilemma for land use regulations in the reserve in the near future. This work is a step toward illuminating the prevailing issues on land-use changes in the reserve. To understand which factors are driving these changes is a timely endeavor that will hopefully contribute to the strengthening of sustainable land-use management strategies in the CMER and in other extractive communities in Amazonia.