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Typology and Characterization of Amazon Colonists: A Case Study Along the Transamazon Highway

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Abstract

This study develops criteria for classifying the actor groups shaping frontier development along the Transamazon Highway colonization project in the Brazilian Amazon, as a basis to improve understanding of their specific contributions to environmental degradation and socio-economic development. Based on an analysis of responses to questionnaires by 93 colonists representing different migration trajectories, production systems, socio-economic strategies and deforestation patterns, actor groups could be statistically classified according to their type of production and level of capitalization. A property size threshold discriminating small and largeholders in the study area is presented and compared with previous attempts to establish such a threshold. Largeholders practicing large-scale cattle ranching and smallholders practicing diversified family agriculture were found to be the two predominant colonist types. Smallholder farming practices were found to be more appropriate to the local environmental conditions than those implemented by cattle ranchers.

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  1. Lei no 8.629, 25 February 1993

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Acknowledgments

This research has been developed as part of the EU financed ForLive Project (PL 510903) “Forest management by small farmers in the Amazon: an opportunity to enhance forest ecosystem stability and rural livelihoods,” and was also financed through a scholarship granted to the main author by the University of Leon. The authors wish to thank the Fundação Viver Produzir e Preservar (FVPP), the Rural Worker Associations in Medicilândia, Brasil Novo and Anapú, and the many farmers who kindly collaborated during the fieldwork. The authors are indebted to three anonymous reviewers for their guidance in improving this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biodiversity and Environmental Management, University of Leon, Avda. Astorga s/n, CP, 24400, Ponferrada, León, Spain

    Javier Godar & Emilio Jorge Tizado

  2. Institute of Selviculture, Freiburg University, Tennenbacherstrasse 4, 79085, Freiburg, Germany

    Benno Pokorny & James Johnson

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  1. Javier Godar
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  2. Emilio Jorge Tizado
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  3. Benno Pokorny
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  4. James Johnson
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Correspondence to Javier Godar.

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Godar, J., Tizado, E.J., Pokorny, B. et al. Typology and Characterization of Amazon Colonists: A Case Study Along the Transamazon Highway. Hum Ecol 40, 251–267 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-012-9457-8

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