Dissertation: Landscape Change and Land-Use/Land-Cover Dynamics in Rondônia, Brazilian Amazon. Abstract: Deforestation and colonization processes within the Brazilian Amazon have attracted substantial attention since the early 1970s. The phenomenon has been associated with issues related to global change, alteration of biogeochemical cycles, land-use/land cover (LULC) dynamics, and biodiversity losses. This dissertation focuses on an area of approximately 3,000 km2 within the State of Rondônia in western Amazon. Two adjacent settlements of similar age, similar biophysical features, and similar assets among colonists were compared to assess the role of their different architectural and institutional designs in LULC dynamics and landscape change. Vale do Anari was planned as an orthogonal road network system. The majority of Rondônia was colonized following this scheme. Machadinho d’Oeste was designed with attention to topography in laying out the grid of farm properties and included communal reserves with right-of-use to local rubber tappers. Field research was undertaken in conjunction with the use of multi-temporal remotely sensed data (1988-1998), GIS integration, and landscape ecology methods. The results indicate that the communal reserves play an important role in maintaining lower levels of fragmentation in Machadinho, where 66% of forest cover remained in 1998 (after 15 years of colonization), in comparison with just 51% in Anari. Without the reserves, forest cover in Machadinho is also 51%. Although analyses at the property level showed that the area deforested per property per year is the same in both settlements for the entire time period of study, in Anari the rate of deforestation was lower before 1988 and higher between 1994 and 1998. Also, pasture conversion is more significant in the fishbone scheme of Anari. Analyses of landscape structure confirmed that Machadinho is less fragmented, more complex, and more interspersed. The combination of privately based decisions for the properties and community-based decisions for the reserves clearly indicates that this architectural and institutional design can produce positive social and environmental outcomes. By comparing different settlement designs, this dissertation contributes to the rethinking of colonization strategies in the Amazon.

Dissertation: Forest Farmers: Human and Landscape Ecology of Caboclo Populations in the Amazon Estuary. Abstract: This is a study about agricultural intensification and food production systems in the Amazon estuary, and their historical, environmental, and socioeconomic dimensions. The topic is analyzed from three perspectives. First, the paradigm of deforestation as a model of agricultural intensification and rural development in the Amazon is discussed from a regional perspective. The regional level of analysis serves as the context of this study of the production system of açai agroforestry (Ecuterpe oleracea), which in addition to being the main economic activity for a large number of estuarine towns, provides a regional staple food, açai fruit. The açai agroforestry economy provides a basis for showing that intensification without deforestation is actually feasible. Second, from an ecological perspective, agricultural intensification is reviewed as a process that calls for understanding within the context of land use. The analysis of land use intensification requires the integration of variables that include the spatial, temporal, and functional relationships between production systems and the vegetation/soil complex operating on complementary scales. Different land use systems, including swidden and mechanized agriculture, are compared, with special attention dedicated to floodplain agroforestry. Finally, the roles of land tenure, technology, and market are assessed in order to provide a fine-grained analysis of production systems, as well as the dynamics of human impact on the landscape and their adaptation to it. Third, from a socioeconomic perspective, this study reviews the extractivist stigma carried by Amazonian caboclos throughout their history. Ignorance of caboclo production systems has led to their disregard as a potential source of technologies and as the target of development of the estuarine floodplain. In the light of the intensification of floodplain agroforestry systems and the role they play in regional agriculture, this study aims to contribute to constructing an identity for rural producers, shifting to a paradigm that moves from viewing caboclos as extractivists to seeing them as forest farmers. Furthermore, this is a study of the history, the theories, and the methods that characterize an interdisciplinary approach to human and landscape ecology. This study is organized around unifying themes that provide a conceptual structure and a basis for methodological integration of the regional, ecological, and socioeconomic dimensions in which agricultural intensification is embedded. Intensification of production systems is the prime unifying theme of this research. It reflects the forces driving land use change, the dilemmas of food production and the environmental management, and the search for new parameters of sustainability and rural development. The second unifying theme that links the areas of investigation is land use, which reflects socioeconomic dynamics while synthesizing the actions of individuals, communities, and institutions at the household, population, and regional levels. Finally, the third unifying them is global change and its human dimensions. It challenges the integration of scales, while reflecting the relationship between intensification of production systems and land use. It has the potential of bridging the gap between the analysis of human behavior and its impacts on the local, regional and global environments. Finally, this is also a technical study concerned with methodological development. It proposes the method of multilevel analysis of land use and land cover change to link each of the unifying themes along different scales of analysis. The method develops a nested data structure to integrate household, vegetation and soil, and landscape levels, while bringing together methods from ecological and economic anthropology, vegetation ecology, and the technologies of remote sensing and geographical information systems.

Dissertation: Fishing Accords: The Political Ecology of Fishing Intensification In the Amazon. Abstract: This study addresses human responses to environmental change. In particular, it analyzes fishing accords, a recent local fishing management instrument created by the floodplain populations in the Amazon. The dissertation identifies the major factors related to the emergence, maintenance, and performance of the fishing accords in order to examine the incentives to create this local management system, and its potential ecological outcomes. Data were obtained by combining secondary data from local publications, and primary data from community census and extensive fieldwork between 1991 and 1997 including interviews, participant observation, and structured questionnaires on household socio-economy and fishing production. A regional analysis of the fishing accords in ecological, historical, socioeconomic, and institutional contexts highlights the major factors influencing its emergence and maintenance. Then, a community-based analysis of two cases of fishing accords evaluates the variability of performance between the two communities. Finally, a summary of the theoretical findings is presented that relate fishing accords to floodplain co-management for the Lower Amazon. The findings reveal the importance of human agency in the performance of local management systems. The heterogeneity of ecological opportunities and local social organization present in floodplain communities creates diverse incentives to individuals to participate in this collective endeavor. The study finds that fishing accords can improve the ecological system when the local population is able to control local decisions, can solve internal conflicts, and has access to other resources, and when the ecosystem can be managed by local rules. Therefore, fishing accords are not a panacea to improve fishing productivity or provide fish conservation. Rather, formal recognition of those institutions should rely upon an evaluation of the social features of the population as well as of the ecological features of the system to be managed in order to determine the degree of fit.

Dissertation: Physical and Symbolic Landscapes of Identity: The Arbëreshe of Southern Italy in the European Context. Abstract: With the acceleration of European integration the changing effect on European identities has been the focus of numerous investigations concentrating on nation-states. What has been overlooked is the effect of this acceleration on those ethnic minorities of Europe that had neither the political nor the economic power to represent a threat to national integrities, and that mediated group identity and cohesion, through time, against national and international political, cultural and economic agendas. The present research focuses on the Arbëreshe of Southern Italy. It describes the conditions under which this group retained its identity, and the impact that policies and initiatives for cultural preservation or promotion had on the future trajectories of cultural production and re-production. The discussion focuses on the decades from the late 1950s to the time fieldwork was conducted in 2003-04. This group underwent profound transformations. Migration, education, the abandonment of rural jobs for the advantage of jobs in the service sector changed the way people dwelled in the village and related to the surrounding environment. The persistence of the group’s identity and its cohesion in these years represented a symbolic capital with both social and material value used to respond to change. The central position the rural world has had as a source of subsistence was displaced by demographic, economic, and social changes. It has been replaced with immaterial capital in the forms of uniqueness and originality of culture, history and ethnicity. Place, localities, “ruralities," and ethnic groups are central foci in the contemporary definition of European identity in contraposition to the normalizing global context.

Dissertation: Collective Action and Assurance of Property Rights to Natural Resources: A Case Study from the Lower Amazon Region, Santarém, Brazil. Abstract: The present study aims to analyze human cooperative behavior in a rural setting in regard to assurance of property rights to natural resources, and to understand the reasons why some people cooperate and some do not. To pursue this goal, I analyzed communities of native peasant people from the Ituqui settlement in the Brazilian Lower Amazon region. Their livelihood relies heavily upon resources from surrounding ecosystems—floodplain and upland. The floodplain is composed of two main ecological zones: natural grassland and flooded forest. The upland ecosystem is also composed of two main zones: bottomland and upland dense forest (tropical moist). This case focuses on two collective actions in which they have been involved. The first collective effort involved seven communities from the Ituqui settlement and dealt with assurance of property rights of the upland ecosystem. After approximately 15 years of land movement, the upland ecosystem was privatized through agrarian reform by the end of the 1980s. In the mid-1990s, the second collective action took place in one community whose residents had participated in the first collective endeavor. The second group effort involved only one-third of the households and its main purpose was to guarantee property rights to the floodplain ecosystem. Household analysis uncovers heterogeneity in terms of household structure and economy, which creates different incentives for people to cooperate or not. Historical accounts reveal that social capital facilitated involvement in the collective action. Finally, in places where individuals explore more than one system in an integrated production economy, the actions taken in one ecosystem may affect other related ecosystems. Analysis of structure and composition of the upland forest and remote-sensing analysis of patterns of land use indicate that although the target of the collective action is the floodplain, the upland is indirectly affected. In this case, opening a pasture and removing wood species to subsidize cattle activity in the floodplain creates a consequential effect on the upland. To conclude, this study shows the importance to consider multi-scale analysis in studies of collective action and conservation.

Dissertation: Regional Integration and Its Effect on the Adaptability and Environment of Rural Maya Populations in Yucatan, Mexico. Abstract: During the early 1970’s the development of a modern highway system connected rural areas in the State of Yucatan, Mexico to the cities of Cancun and Merida. The traditional Maya survival strategy allowed local rural populations to take advantage of the income offered in the cities. Their migratory decisions had little effect on traditional gender roles, and were found to protect children’s health. Women have integrated themselves to the labor market in the cities, and marry at least 2 years later than they did in the 70’s. This has led to fertility reductions in women under 25 years of age. Use of contraceptives in the older age cohorts contributed to fertility decline in women older than 30. Reduced infant mortality and evidence from linear enamel hypoplasias suggest that vaccination campaigns and the introduction of running water reduced infant and child exposure to infectious and intestinal diseases. Overall living conditions remain the same. No secular trends in adult stature or age at menarche were observed, and comparisons to children measured in the past are inconclusive. Maintaining emphasis on food production protected the Maya from the negative effects on health that are usually associated with the introduction of a cash economy into a society based on subsistence agriculture. The ability of the Maya to continue to produce their own food, however, is being threatened by population growth, leading to environmental deterioration and declining agricultural yields. If the Maya’s ability to produce food is further compromised, their successful integration of salaried work may suffer, and their health and well-being may be compromised.

Dissertation: Land-Use Decision Making, Uncertainty and Effectiveness of Land Reform in Acre, Brazilian Amazon. Abstract: From 1970 to 1999, almost 700,000 families were settled through land reform programs in Brazil. However, lot turnover contributed to re-concentration of land and to the limited success of these programs. This dissertation explores land-use decision-making in an aging land reform settlement in the Amazon. It focuses on how farmers respond to limited access to the information and to opportunities that are typical of the frontier context. I analyze the interactions among variables affecting families, communities and the agrarian structure of the settlement, and changes in land-use and cover (LUCC) resulting from these interactions. The study site is a government sponsored colonization project (P.C. Humaitá) in the State of Acre, Brazil. Variables affecting land-use choices were analyzed studied through a micro-level approach using remote sensing linked to social sciences’ techniques. A property grid (n=739) overlaid to satellite images (1981-2003) was used to analyze LUCC during this period. It was found that differences among social groups, access to urban centers, and use of agricultural credit contributed to explaining LUCC along settlement’s lifetime. Additionally, lot consolidation into larger properties was found to correlate with accessibility to urban centers, but not with deforestation. It was also found that diversification of livelihood strategies through time comprises an important adaptive mechanism to the uncertain conditions that are present on frontier settlements. Additionally, it was found that social learning processes help farmers deal with uncertainty and to take advantage of economic opportunities. There have been enough experiences in the Amazon to inform better governance approaches to promote rural development; despite failures and problems, land redistribution and regularization is an historical need in Brazil and should continue to be a policy priority. However, land markets and infrastructure constraints during different stages of settlement formation are important forces undermining the goals and successes of land reform in the region.

Dissertation: Protecting an Urban Forest Reserve in the Amazon: A Multi-Scale Analysis of Edge Effects Population Pressure, and Institutions. Abstract: This dissertation addresses human and environmental problems that arise in restricted-use forest reserves. It aims to explain degradation and restoration in these forest reserves, and examines the role of edge effects, population pressure and institutions in an urban forest reserve in Manaus, state of Amazonas, Brazil. Given the multi-level complexity of problems associated with conserving forest reserves, a multi-scale analysis was undertaken. This study employed an interdisciplinary approach to examine the preservation of Campus Forest over a 30-year period. This research integrates social, biophysical, and institutional data to examine the causes of forest structural changes. The data collected includes: a) forest mensuration data, b) remotely sensed land cover data, c) household surveys, and d) in-depth qualitative interviews concerning institutional variables. Using the framework employed in this dissertation, I examine the direct and indirect causes of degradation in the Campus Forest reserve. This study shows that the current ecological characteristics of Campus Forest are shaped by both local and regional level processes. Biophysical and institutional edge effects may affect the conservation performance of a forest reserve, but these factors do not explain ecological decline by themselves. Other key variables such as history of land use inside and outside the reserve, government incentives motivating migration, conflicts between squatters and reserve managers, and the creation and evolution of the reserve’s institutional arrangements are also needed to explain Campus Forest’s degree of preservation.

Dissertation: The Ecology of Food and Nutrition: Patterns of Land use and Nutritional Status among Caboclo Populations in Marajó Island, Pará, Brazil. Abstract: During the last 30 years, the magnitude of environmental, economic and political changes taking place in the Amazon region have had profound impact on the socioeconomic, nutritional, and health patterns of native populations. Caboclos—the Brazilian Amazon peasant—who practice an economy based on multiple resource use, including agriculture, agroforestry, fishing, and extraction of forest products, have been directly and/or indirectly affected by these changes. Some of the effects of these changes can be observed in terms of land use and economic strategies of Caboclo populations. Other effects, however, need to be understood at the level of social organization and biological adaptation of these populations. In other words, they also involve changes in the land tenure system, migration patterns, household income, decision making processes, education and health systems, requiring an investigation beyond that of land use and environment alone. However, the search for sustainable development models for Amazonia has frequently over stressed environmental and economic variables over social and human biological indicators. This study investigates the relationships between land use and nutritional status of Amazonian Caboclo populations. It discusses the utility of using nutritional status as a parameter of well-being, and as an indicator of social and biological sustainability. Furthermore, this study attempts to incorporate local social and political organization as an important dimension to understand land use practices and nutritional status changes. The concept of well-being, also interchangeable with qualify of life, involves a broad range of definitions. Nevertheless, two set of the feasible variables indicating quality of life are those related to nutritional status is susceptible and directly affected by the availability, quality and quantity of food and incidence of diseases. Ultimately, nutritional status reflects social, cultural, economic, and physical environmental conditions. In this study, anthropometric indicators and diet surveys are used as parameters of well-being of Caboclo populations engaged in different land use and economic systems. Three scenarios are compared and discussed in this dissertation as representative of land use and economic changes taking place among contemporary Amazonian Caboclo populations. These land use systems include slash –and-burn and mechanized agriculture, cattle ranching, and floodplain agroforestry of açai (Euterpe oleracea) palm. The intensification of açai fruit production through agroforestry management has been taking place for the past 15 years, largely in response to regional marketing demands. Açai represents an important staple food for urban and rural populations alike. In addition, this local production system has been able to increase food yield without causing deforestation. In short, this study addresses the following main questions: How do changes in economic and subsistence systems affect food availability and security? Do differences in food intake lead to differentiation sin nutritional status? What other factors affect nutritional status? Do higher levels of household income translate into greater food consumption? If so, is it of higher nutritional value? What are the patterns of food distribution within households? Do gender and age affect access to resources, such as food? How do household decision making processes affect nutritional status?

Dissertation: The Role of Land Tenure in the Occurrence of Accidental Fires in the Amazon Region: Case Studies from the National Forest of Tapajós, Pará, Brazil. Abstract: This dissertation focuses on the role of property regimes to natural resources on the occurrence of accidental fires in small farm communities in the Amazon region. Human activities have increased over the last decades in response to political and economic forces, fragmented and impoverished portions of the forest, increasing its vulnerability to fires. To address the questions of this dissertation, two main frameworks are used: Land Cover/Land Use Change and Institution Analysis and Development. I found that the land use/cover patterns observed under the private property regime are more susceptible to accidental fires than those observed under the common property regime. The land cover pattern observed under the private ownership has a greater area of forest edge (which are more susceptible to fires) and forest exposed to pasture, the key ignition source. However, there are factors other than property regimes affecting land use/cover patterns: The private property community is (a) occupied by immigrant farmers who practice cattle ranching and are less dependent on forest’s products and, (b) is located close to the highway, which facilitates loggers’ access to the forests. Other studies have found that forests used for logging purposes are also more susceptible to fires. Moreover, specific attributes of the common property regime give to that community important advantage concerning transactional costs for fire management when compared to private ownership: (a) Members of the common property have dense social networks used for organizing communal activities, which improves communication and decreases costs of organizing for fire prevention and monitoring rules compliance. (b) Boundary rules are clearly defined which regulates who may live in the community, resulting in low land turnover and long term commitment to the community. Arrangements will need to be devised to xii facilitate the organization among occupants that have greater cultural diversity, fewer social networks, and high land turnover situations.