Abstract
There has been a widespread assumption that a strong market for locally managed, sustainable production systems provides the key for regional development and conservation in the Amazon. During the past decades, a variety of factors has allowed for the first part of this equation to happen throughout the Amazon estuary. The region has experienced significant growth, intensification of production, and wide participation in the market economy of forest fruits and products. The expected outcome, however, has yet to be realized and seems far from certain.
Throughout history, the Amazonian estuarine floodplains have experienced some of the most dramatic demands for forest and agricultural products: cacao, rubber, sugarcane, rice, logging, fisheries, heart of palm, and açaí fruit are some examples. The productivity of regional forests, accessibility, proximity to state capitals, and the agroforestry knowledge of local populations are some of the factors facilitating these processes. However, despite stronger market connections, incentives for sustainable development, and valuing of regional products and cultural identities, old problems persistently exist in ever more puzzling forms. Why do we see a recurrent pattern of underdevelopment, as measured by education, health, job opportunities, income distribution, and public services, even under good market and production conditions?
This chapter combines long-term longitudinal ethnographic research and regional census data (economic, social, human development) to analyze the intensification of production and commercialization of forest and agricultural resources in the Amazon estuary.
Different factors mediate the interaction between producers, municipalities, and regional markets. In spite of a growing market for forest products have had limited impact in aggregating economic value at the municipal level, thus limiting local investments in social services and infrastructure, and creating employment opportunities. As in many parts of the Amazon, estuarine municipalities suffer from the lack of basic services and political conditions that enable economic development, while depending on federal assistance funds. This chapter discusses the need for initiatives focusing on the creation of transformative industries and producer-based cooperative systems connected to rural areas and small towns.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Bolsa Familia provides a monthly stipend to families below the poverty line having children younger than 17 years of age. The maximum monthly stipend per family is R$95.
- 2.
- 3.
Imposto sobre Circulação de Mercadorias e Prestação de Serviços (tax on the circulation of goods and services)
- 4.
Source: RAIS (2005)///MTE, Brazil.
- 5.
Unpublished household survey 2007/2008, 8 communities, 264 households.
- 6.
- 7.
Instituto de Pesquisa Econômicas Aplicada (Institute for Applied Economic Research)
- 8.
www.ipea.gov.br/001/00101001.jsp?ttCD_CHAVE=2&btOPERACAO= (accessed May 20, 2008)
- 9.
IPEA: This ratio measures the degree of inequality existing in the distribution of per capita income. It compares the average income of individuals belonging to the top 10% with the income of individuals belonging to the lowest 40%.
- 10.
L de Theil index: This measures the inequality distribution according to per capita income, not including individuals who are not economically active. It is the logarithm of the ratio between the arithmetic and the geometric average of income; the lower the value, the lower the inequality; a higher value indicates increasing inequality.
References
Benatti, J. H., et al. (2005). A questao fundiaria e o manejo dos recursos naturais da Várzea. Brasil: ProVárzea, IBAMA.
Brondízio, E. S. (2008). The Amazonian Caboclo and the Açaí palm: forest farmers in the global market (Advances in economic botany monograph series, Vol. 16). New York: New York Botanical Garden Press.
Brondízio, E. S. (2006a). Landscapes of the past, footprints of the future: Historical ecology and the analysis of land use change in the Amazon. In W. Balée & C. Erikson (Eds.), Time and complexity in historical ecology: Studies in the neotropical lowlands. New York: Columbia University Press.
Brondízio, E. S. (2006b). Intensificação agricola, identidade econômica, e invisibilidade de pequenos produtores Amazônicos: Caboclos e Colonos em uma perspectiva comparada. In C. Adams, R. S. S. Murrieta, & W. A. Neves (Eds.), Sociedades Caboclas Amazônicas: modernidade e invisibilidade. São Paulo: AnaBlume.
Brondízio, E. S. (2004a). Agriculture intensification, economic identity, and shared invisibility in Amazonian peasantry: Caboclos and Colonists in comparative perspective. Culture and Agriculture, 26(1, 2), 1–24.
Brondízio, E. S. (2004b). From staple to fashion food: shifting cycles, shifting opportunities in the development of the Açaí fruit (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) economy in the Amazon estuary. In D. Zarin et al. (Eds.), Working forests in the American tropics: conservation through sustainable management? New York: Columbia University Press.
Brondízio, E. S., Safar, C. C. M., & Siqueira, A. D. (2002). The urban market of Açaí fruit (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) and rural land use change: ethnographic insights into the role of price and land tenure constraining agricultural choices in the Amazon estuary. Urban Ecosystems, 6(1/2), 67–98.
Brondízio, E. S., & Siqueira, A. D. (1997). From extractivists to forest farmers: changing concepts of agricultural intensification and peasantry in the Amazon estuary. Research in Economic Anthropology, 18, 233–279.
Chambers, R. (1992). Poverty in India: Concepts measurement and reality. In B. Harris et al. (Eds.), Poverty in India: Research and Policy. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Chelekis, Jessica and Susan Mudambi. MNCs and Micro-Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economics: The Case of Avon in the Amazon. “Journal of International Management, in press (December 2010.
Duraiappah, A., Comin, F. T., Oliveira, T., Gupta, J., Kumar, P., Pyoos, M., et al. (2005). Consequences of ecosystems services for poverty reduction and human well-being. In K. Chopra et al. (Eds.), Ecosystems and human well-being: policy responses: findings of the responses working group of the millennium ecosystem assessment. London: Island.
DeCastro, F., Siqueira, A. D., Brondízio, E. S., & Ferreira, L. C. (2006). The use and misuse of the ‘traditional’ concept in environmental conservation in the Ribeira Valley, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ambiente e Sociedade, 9(1), 23–39.
Hale, C. (2002). Does multiculturalism menace? Governance, cultural rights and the politics of identity in Guatemala. Journal of Latin American Studies, 34(3), 485. 40.
Hiraoka, M. (1994). Mudanças nos padrões econômicos de uma população ribeirinha do estuário do Amazonas. In L. Furtado, A. F. Mello, & W. Leitão (Eds.), Povos das águas: Realidade e perspectivas na Amazônia. Belém, Para, Brasil: MPEG/Universidade Federal do Para.
IBGE (1974–2003) Censo Agropecuario.Rio de Janerio, Brazil. http://www.ibge.gov.br
Kluckhohn, C. (1949). Mirror for Man. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Lima, D. (Ed.). (2005). Socio-diversidade na Várzea. Brasilia: IBAMA/Programa ProVárzea.
Mourao, L. (1999). Do acai ao palmito: Uma historia ecologica das permanencias, tensoes e rupturas no estuario Amazonico. Tese de Doutorado. Nucleo de Altos Estudos Amazonicos. Universidade Federal do Para. Belem.
Padoch, C., Brondízio, E. S., Costa, S., Pinedo-Vasquez, M., Sears, R., & Siqueira, A. (2008) The urbanizing Amazon: reconfiguring resource uses and transforming landscapes. Ecology and Society, 13(2), 2. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss2/art2/
Pinedo-Vasquez, M., & Padoch, C. (In press). Urban, rural and in-between: multi-sited households, mobility and resource management in the Amazon floodplain. In M. N. Alexiades, (Ed.), Mobility and migration in indigenous Amazonia: Contemporary ethnoecological perspectives. Berghahn, Oxford.
PNUD-IDH (2000). Programa das Nacoes Unidas para o Desenvolvimento, Indice de Desenvolvimento Humano. Published in Brazil by the Instituto de Pesquisa Económicas Aplicada (IPEA) at http://www.ipea.gov.br
Poullet, D. (1998). Açaí: estudo da cadeia produtiva: fruto e palmito. Macapá, Amapá, Brasil: Instituto de Pesquisas Científicas e Tecnológicas do Estado do Amapá. Publicação avulsa.
RAIS (2005). Annual Report of Social information Ministerio de Ciencias e Technologia, Brasil.
Rogez, H. (2000). Açaí: preparo, composição e melhoramento da conservacao. Belém, Para, Brasil: Editora da Universidade Federal do Para.
Sen, A. (2006). What do we want from a theory of justice? Journal of Philosophy, 103(5), 429–440.
Siqueira, A. D. (2006). Mulheres, relações de gênero e tomadas de decisão em unidades Caboclas do estuário Amazônico. In C. Adams, R. S. S. Murrieta, & W. A. Neves (Eds.), Sociedades Caboclas Amazônicas. São Paulo, Brasil: AnaBlume/FAPESP.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brondízio, E.S. (2011). Forest Resources, Family Networks and the Municipal Disconnect: Examining Recurrent Underdevelopment in the Amazon Estuary. In: Pinedo-Vasquez, M., Ruffino, M., Padoch, C., Brondízio, E. (eds) The Amazon Várzea . Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0146-5_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0146-5_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-0145-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-0146-5
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)