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One of the most important freely available digital elevation models (DEMs) for Amazonia is the one obtained by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). However, since SRTM tends to represent the vegetation surface instead of the ground surface, the broad use of SRTM DEM as a framework for terrain description in Amazonia is hampered by the presence of deforested areas. We present here two datasets: (1) a deforestation-corrected SRTM DEM for the interfluve between the Purus and Madeira rivers, in central Amazonia, which passed through a careful identification of different environments and has deforestation features corrected by a new method of increasing pixel values of the DEM; and (2) a set of eighteen hydrological-topographic descriptors based on the corrected SRTM DEM. The hydrological-topographic description was generated by the Height Above the Nearest Drainage (HAND) algorithm, which normalizes the terrain elevation (a.s.l.) by the elevation of the nearest hydro-logically connected drainage. The validation of the HAND dataset was done by in situ hydrological description of 110 km of walking trails also available in this dataset. The new SRTM DEM expands the applicability of SRTM data for landscape modelling; and the datasets of hydrological features based on topographic modelling is undoubtedly appropriate for ecological modelling and an important contribution for environmental mapping of Amazonia. The deforestation-corrected SRTM DEM is available at http://ppbio.inpa.gov.br/knb/metacat/naman.318.3/ppbio; the polygons selected for deforestation correction are available at http://ppbio.inpa.gov.br/knb/metacat/naman.317. 3/ppbio; the set of hydrological-topographic descriptors is available at http://ppbio.inpa. gov.br/knb/metacat/naman.544.2/ppbio; and the environmental description of access trails is available at http://ppbio.inpa.gov.br/knb/metacat/naman.541.2/ppbio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluate the ISBACC land surface model over the Amazon forest, and propose a revised parameterization of photosynthesis, including new soil water stress and autotrophic respiration functions. The revised version allows the model to better capture the energy, water and carbon fluxes when compared to five Amazonian fluxtowers. The performance of ISBACC is slightly site-dependent but similar to the widely evaluated land surface model ORCHIDEE, based on different assumptions. Changes made to the autotrophic respiration functions, including a vertical profile of leaf respiration, leads to simulate yearly carbon use efficiency and carbon stocks consistent with an ecophysiological meta analysis conducted on three Amazonian sites. Despite these major improvements, ISBACC struggles to capture the apparent seasonality of the carbon fluxes derived from the fluxtower estimations. However, there is still no consensus on the seasonality of carbon fluxes over the Amazon, stressing a need for more observations as well as a better understanding of the main drivers of autotrophic respiration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented which discusses articles in the issue on topics including Pope Francis' encyclical letter "Laudato si'," indigenous peoples in the Amazonian basin area, and integral ecology.

Copyright of Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente is the property of Universidade Federal do Parana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Considerable interest in the relationship between biodiversity and disease has recently captured the attention of the research community, with impor- tant public policy implications. In particular, malaria in the Amazon region is often cited as an example of how forest conservation can improve public health outcomes. However, despite a growing body of literature and an increased understanding of the relationship between malaria and land use / land cover change (LULC) in Amazonia, contradictions have emerged. While some studies report that deforestation increases malaria risk, others claim the opposite. Assessing malaria risk requires examination of dynamic processes among three main components: (i) the environment (i.e. LULC and landscape transformations), (ii) vector biology (e.g. mosquito species distributions, vector activity and life cycle, plasmodium infection rates), and (iii) human populations (e.g. forest-related activity, host susceptibility, movement patterns). In this paper, we conduct a systematic literature review on malaria risk and deforestation in the Amazon focusing on these three components. We explore key features that are likely to generate these contrasting results using the reviewed articles and our own data from Brazil and Peru, and conclude with suggestions for productive avenues in future research. This article is part of the themed issue 'Conservation, biodiversity and infectious disease: scientific evidence and policy implications'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mundo Amazónico is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Common stereotypes of a homogeneous Amazonia belie the complexity and diversity of peoples and landscapes across the region. Although often invisible to the outside world, diverse peoples-indigenous, traditional, migrant, urban dwellers and others-actively construct their identities and shape cultural and political landscapes in diverse ways throughout the region. This volume combines political ecology, with its emphasis on identity, politics, and social movements, with insights from cultural geography's focus on landscapes, identities and livelihoods, to explore the changing nature of Amazonian development. These papers focus on indigenous identity and cosmology; changing livelihoods and identities; and transboundary landscapes. They highlight the diversity of proactive, place-based social and political actors who increasingly raise their voices to contest and engage with Amazon development policies. Based on their history, social values, and livelihood practices, such groups propose alternative ways of understanding and managing Amazonian landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the progressive establishment of protected areas for conservation and communal indigenous land, market economy has been regulated in the Peruvian Amazon. Interlinked networks and institutions situate the agency of institutional entrepreneurs championing forest protection and indigenous peoples' rights over territory and resources. This paper shows how a critical integration of new institutionalisms in the social sciences provides a suitable theory frame to study the process of protectionist institutional change as envisioned by Karl Polanyi. The cumulative result of socially-embedded state activism –that is, regulatory activism that is embedded in society– is an institutional regime that strengthens the resources and capabilities of conservationist groups and Amazonian indigenous peoples' organisations as collective constructs while facing the social forces of commodification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental degradation and economic development are two of the most pressing issues facing the world today, and public policy that aims to address one of these may unintentionally affect the other. I study the effect of an increase in environmental law enforcement on local economic conditions in rural Brazil. In the first part of this paper, I use data on more targeted anti-deforestation law enforcement activities, guided by satellite alerts, and link that to local forest conversion. I then exploit the staggered introduction of a policy that increases monitoring and enforcement in municipalities with a history of high deforestation, and link this to a range of economic development outcomes. I find that more targeted law enforcement reduces conversion rates of forest to farm land. Furthermore, economic conditions in municipalities with stricter monitoring improve, indicating that environmental enforcement and economic development need not be at odds. • Targeted law enforcement in Amazon Biome of Brazil reduces deforestation. • Economic conditions in municipalities with stricter deforestation-monitoring improve. • GDP per capita is higher, and number of recipients of income support lower in targeted municipalities. • Environmental enforcement and economic development need not be at odds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/context: This paper analyses the relations between 19th century travelling naturalists and the indigenous inhabitants of Brazilian Amazonia. The region was a favourite among travellers during the latter half of the 19th century. On their travel books, naturalists reported not only on local Nature, but also on local inhabitants and their contributions to the expeditions, making them valuable sources for understanding the interactions between them and the natives. Originality: The originality of the paper rests in the use of a diverse set of primary sources, in the form of 19th century travel books. The article contributes to the current historiography on Natural History expeditions while aiming specifically at the relations between naturalists and the indigenous inhabitants of the region. Methodology: The analysis relies on primary sources, which consist mainly of the travel books written and published by some of the most well-known 19th century travelling naturalists that visited the Brazilian Amazonia. It is from their personal reports and observations that we aim to understand, on the one hand, how these foreign naturalists interacted with the local indigenous inhabitants and, on the other, how the natives were able contribute to the scientific expeditions led by European naturalists. Conclusions: It is safe to conclude that the indigenous inhabitants of Brazilian Amazonia were a constant presence during 19th century expeditions in the region. The interactions between naturalists and natives, sometimes mediated by a third party, were often essential to the success of these expeditions. The principal contribution of the indigenous inhabitants, as stated by the naturalists themselves, was the aid in the collection of specimens. The natives' expertise on the habits and habitats of animals and plants, paired with their hunting and to navigational skills through the region's complex river system, seem to have been a subject of admiration as well as a source of information and specimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper addresses instances in which another person's speech is made one's own. Starting with the presentation of reported speech practices in daily conversations, then moving to semi-ritual retellings, speech play and the capture of another's voice by force, it finally brings examples of voicing nonhumans in ritual discourse. Drawing on studies of reported speech, voicing and capture in Amazonia and elsewhere, it suggests a possible connection between these different modalities of using another's speech. Reporting, taking and voicing speech, here, are related acts, but with a decreasing distance between animator and author. Finally, the paper argues that Amerindian understandings of the voice are a step in understanding the meaning of reference in the Amerindian linguistic natures. Highlights • This paper argues that reporting, capturing and voicing speech are acts in which there is a decreasing distance between animator and author. • It is the first linguistic description of reported speech amongst the Araweté. • The paper further argues that Amerindian understandings of the voice are a step in understanding the meaning of reference in the Amerindian linguistic natures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil has an energy system with a hydrothermal characteristic that interconnects consumers and generators covering 98% of the demand for energy supplies. Most of the plants are concentrated in the southeast region, where the largest consumers and the largest population concentration are located. The expansion of this system, considering the hydroelectric contributions, will occur exploring the potentials located in the Amazon region. This analysis paper shows that the variations imposed by climate changes on some climatological variables create significant uncertainties about the power generation forecasts of the hydroelectric power plants to be installed in the Amazon, thus compromising the financial economic feasibility of these enterprises and also possibly compromising the expansion plans of the Brazilian energy system. The methodological approach uses information from various climate change scenarios and compares those with historical hydrological patterns and generation information. By exploring the characteristics of a large-scale hydrothermal system with high dependence on water resources, this paper provides valuable insights on how energy policy would address hydroelectric vulnerabilities and climate change. This analysis is focused on the Brazilian case but reveals important issues related to systems with hydro thermal characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lower Anapu River, Eastern Amazon, has a discrete flood pulse with narrow flooded areas due to the reduced influence of tides. In this environment, local precipitation might act as an important factor in the input of detritus, which can serve as a trigger for fish reproductive period. Therefore, this paper aims to determine the effects of local precipitation on the reproductive ecology of an abundant detritivorous fish in flooded rivers. Between May 2012 and April 2013, 886 specimens (471 females and 415 males) were captured monthly using gill nets. Individuals were measured, weighted, sexed, and the gonadal development stage was defined macroscopically and confirmed histologically. Sex ratio, length-weight relationship (LWR), condition factor (k), Gonadosomatic Index (GSI), relative frequency of maturity stages, and size at first gonadal maturity (L) were estimated and tested in relation to rainfall periods. There was no difference between the expected sex ratio (1:1), and both males and females showed polyphasic growth. The condition factor indicated higher values at the beginning of the rainy season and lower values during the dry season for both sexes. GSI and relative frequency of mature individuals indicated a long reproduction period with gonadal investment starting within the dry season until early in the rainy season for spawning within the rains. The L value showed that males reach sexual maturity before females. Results indicated a reproductive pattern strongly influenced by rainfall, corroborating the importance of local precipitation for lacustrine environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2003, the Workers’ Party took federaloffice in Brazil on an agenda of social inclusion and popular participation. This paper explores attempts to implement that agenda in big infrastructure projects in the Amazon: the BR-163 road and the Belo Monte dam. We argue that overlapping inequalities (between social groups, within the bureaucracy and between territorial centre and periphery) result in uneven state capacities for implementing projects in the Amazon. This framework helps explain why the government has moved much faster in building infrastructure than in implementing participatory social and environmental programmes that would benefit affected local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As "kidneys of the earth", wetlands play an important role in ameliorating weather conditions, flood storage, and the control and reduction of environmental pollution. With the development of local economies, the wetlands in both the Amazon and Yangtze River Basins have been affected and threatened by human activities, such as urban expansion, reclamation of land from lakes, land degradation, and large-scale agricultural development. It is necessary and important to develop a wetland ecosystem health evaluation model and to quantitatively evaluate the wetland ecosystem health in these two basins. In this paper, GlobeLand30 land cover maps and socio-economic and climate data from 2000 and 2010 were adopted to assess the wetland ecosystem health of the Yangtze and Amazon River Basins on the basis of a pressure-state-response (PSR) model. A total of 13 indicators were selected to build the wetland health assessment system. Weights of these indicators and PSR model components, as well as normalized wetland health scores, were assigned and calculated based on the analytic hierarchy process method. The results showed that from 2000 to 2010, the value of the mean wetland ecosystem health index in the Yangtze River Basin decreased from 0.482 to 0.481, while it increased from 0.582 to 0.593 in the Amazon River Basin. This indicated that the average status of wetland ecosystem health in the Amazon River Basin is better than that in the Yangtze River Basin, and that wetland health improved over time in the Amazon River Basin but worsened in the Yangtze River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wild meat is an important source of dietary protein and fat for many indigenous peoples in Amazonia. However, rates of wildlife harvest are often unsustainable, threatening not only biodiversity but also the food security of indigenous peoples. During the last decades, Ecuadorian Amazonia has undergone profound socioeconomic changes which have significantly altered peoples' livelihood strategies. Little is known, however, how such changes have affected wildlife hunting. Based on data from a household survey, this paper analyzes the socioeconomic drivers of wildlife hunting among indigenous peoples in Pastaza, in the Ecuadorian Amazonia. The results of a random-effect tobit analysis reveal that, wealthier households which have higher shares of off-farm and non-farm employment tend to harvest smaller amounts of wild meat. A probable explanation to this is that having a permanent and well-paid job implies an increased opportunity cost of time, leading to a decrease in the time spent hunting and, therefore, decreased wildlife harvests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We employ nearest neighbor matching to obtain a balanced sample of pixels from certified and non-certified forests. • We estimate Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) and Two-Way Fixed Effect Models (TWFE) with the matched pixel-level data. • Inviting oversight by FSC reduces the probability of deforestation in private properties designated for sustainable forest management. • The greatest potential of forest certification lies in regions with low governance capacity and high deforestation pressure. • Scaling up of certification in new areas can make real contributions to protecting forests and mitigating and adapting to climate change. In the American tropics, logging is almost always highly selective, leaving most of the forest standing and available for future harvest under sustainable forest management. However, forest that has been logged is often more accessible to deforestation agents such as farmers. Thus, areas legally designated for sustainable forest management in reality may be more susceptible to illegal deforestation. Third-party certification of sustainable forest management is one strategy for protecting such forest. In this paper, we estimate the effect of certification by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) on deforestation, drawing on data from the years 2001 to 2019. We observe strong selection effects resulting in systematic differences between certified forest areas and other forest areas designated for sustainable forest management, and we find that after controlling for those selection effects, inviting oversight by FSC reduces the probability of deforestation. Our study design compares forests "treated" with FSC certification to "control" forests designated for sustainable forest management but not (yet) certified in the two Brazilian states of Pará and Rondônia. Adopting pixel-based analyses, we first create a matched sample of treated and control pixels and then estimate GLMM models, with two-way fixed effects (TWFE) models as a robustness check. We find that where forest managers have obtained certification and thus invited oversight by FSC auditors, rates of forest loss are lower (although the results are not fully robust across regions). The estimated effects vary across regions, likely due to varying socioeconomic and policy contexts and competing land uses. We conclude that especially in settings of low governance capacity and high deforestation pressure, certification can contribute to long-term forest conservation by reducing deforestation rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing countries are known to exploit their resource frontier to achieve growth objectives and reduce poverty. This can lead to long-term positive outcomes or – if resource exploitation is unsustainable – lose–lose outcomes that leave populations and ecosystems worse off. This paper introduces a dynamic model of resource exploitation to explain how regions may succumb to, avoid or escape this negative outcome. The theoretical model characterizes a frontier community that uses soil as an input into agricultural production. The model shows that there may be a critical point in the soil stock that determines whether agricultural activities lead to sustainable development or a collapse in local income. This suggests that, in the event of a resource collapse, temporary adjustments to the system may permanently rehabilitate the resource base and change a community's development pattern. Calibration of the model to several frontier states of the Brazilian Amazon points toward an overall outcome of steady development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper applies a participatory approach in evaluating small-scale fisheries, focusing on the Arapaima gigas fishery in the Brazilian Amazon. The evaluation uses the social-ecological system (SES) framework, adopted to explain the conditions needed for sustainability and user cooperation in natural resources management, as a more suitable alternative to the 'blueprint' or 'panaceas' approaches, based only on property rights or governmental intervention. However, managers and users often do not have the necessary information compiled and available for a specific SES while some actions need to be taken immediately. Thus, consensus and negotiation among stakeholders about SES variables may be useful to evaluate system performance and indicate actions to promote sustainability. In the case study, using a consensus-building model, we found that arapaima SES leads to sustainability and is far from being a case of 'tragedy of the commons.' More investments in suitable monitoring and enforcement for adaptive management are recommended. Adopting an SES framework based on stakeholders' prospects may be useful until complete interdisciplinary studies become available so as to seek of sustainability in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing and climate digital products have become increasingly available in recent years. Access to these products has favored a variety of Digital Earth studies, such as the analysis of the impact of global warming over different biomes. The study of the Amazon forest response to drought has recently received particular attention from the scientific community due to the occurrence of extreme droughts and anomalous warming over the last decade. This paper focuses on the differences observed between surface thermal anomalies obtained from remote sensing moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) and climatic (ERA-Interim) monthly products over the Amazon forest. With a few exceptions, results show that the spatial pattern of standardized anomalies is similar for both products. In terms of absolute anomalies, the differences between the two products show a bias near to zero with a standard deviation of around 0.2 K, although the differences can be up to 1 K over particular regions and months. Despite this general agreement, the proper filtering of MODIS daily values in order to construct a new monthly product showed a dramatic reduction in the number of reliable pixels during the rainy season, while for the dry season this reduction is only seen in Northern Amazonia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Tropical multiple-use plants provide an array of ecosystem services, including providing food for wildlife, non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and commercial logs. As land-use and land-cover change (LUCC) continues in tropical forests, questions on whether the ecosystem services they provide can be sustained become more pressing. As particular species of plants are targeted for provisioning services, such as commercial logging, the implications for other ecosystem services are often unknown. In this paper we drew on the traditional knowledge of the Makushi and Wapishiana Amerindians of Southern Guyana, and multiple-use plants to gauge the ecosystem services that may be compromised as tropical forests undergo change. An inventory of tree and palm species was classified into one or more of four resource-use classes: commercial timber, wildlife food, traditional uses or no known use. Species that intersected more than one resource use were defined as multiple-use species, and occupied four primary classes – wildlife food/commercial timber, commercial timber/traditional uses, wildlife food/traditional uses and wildlife food/commercial timber/traditional uses. Traditional knowledge allowed us to identify plant species and describe how they are used for provisioning, cultural and supporting ecosystem services and shaping our understanding of the multiple dimensions of ecosystem services associated with a single species. EDITED BY John Parrotta [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature and spatial scale of prehistoric human landscape modifications in Amazonia are enduring questions. Original conceptions of the issues by archaeologists published more than 40 years ago posited little human influence because of putative environmental constraints. Empirical data accumulated more recently demonstrated dense, permanent settlements along major watercourses of the central and southern Amazon, and profound landscape alterations in seasonally flooded savanna regions of Bolivia. These results led some investigators to propose that most to all of Amazonia was heavily populated and modified before European arrival, and that prehistoric fires and forest clearing were of such a massive scale that post-Columbian reforestation was a significant contributor to decreasing atmospheric CO2 levels and the onset of the ‘Little Ice Age’. Recent data generated from investigations of soils sampled from underneath standing terra firme forests in parts of the western Amazon indicate ephemeral ancient human occupation and little vegetation disturbance there. These issues are central to ongoing discussions surrounding the classification and timing of the Anthropocene, because a geological epoch proposed on the basis of profound human alteration of environments and considerations of when during the Holocene it should begin, require robust paleo-environmental and archaeological data from major, critically important zones such as the Amazon Basin. This paper reviews debates and existing information on prehistoric human influences in Amazonia, provides new data from the western Amazon, and attempts to arrive at reasonable conclusions based on the available empirical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Forestry Review is the property of Commonwealth Forestry Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Collection 6 (C6) MODIS land and atmosphere datasets are scheduled for release in 2014. C6 contains significant revisions of the calibration approach to account for sensor aging. This analysis documents the presence of systematic temporal trends in the visible and near-infrared (500 m) bands of the Collection 5 (C5) MODIS Terra, and to lesser extent, in MODIS Aqua geophysical datasets. Sensor degradation is largest in the Blue band (B3) of the MODIS sensor on Terra and decreases with wavelength. Calibration degradation causes negative global trends in multiple MODIS C5 products including the dark target algorithm's aerosol optical depth over land and Ångström Exponent over the ocean, global liquid water and ice cloud optical thickness, as well as surface reflectance and vegetation indices, including the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI). As the C5 production will be maintained for another year in parallel with C6, one objective of this paper is to raise awareness of the calibration-related trends for the broad MODIS user community. The new C6 calibration approach removes major calibrations trends in the Level 1B (L1B) data. This paper also introduces an enhanced C6+ calibration of the MODIS dataset which includes an additional polarization correction (PC) to compensate for the increased polarization sensitivity of MODIS Terra since about 2007, as well as detrending and Terra-Aqua cross-calibration over quasi-stable desert calibration sites. The PC algorithm, developed by the MODIS ocean biology processing group (OBPG), removes residual scan angle, mirror side and seasonal biases from aerosol and surface reflectance (SR) records along with spectral distortions of SR. Using the Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm over deserts, we have also developed a de-trending and cross-calibration method which removes residual decadal trends on the order of several tenths of one percent of the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance in the visible and near-infrared MODIS bands B1-B4, and provides a good consistency between the two MODIS sensors. MAIAC analysis over the southern USA shows that the C6+ approach removed an additional negative decadal trend of Terra ÉNDVI ~ 0.01 as compared to Aqua data. This change is particularly important for analysis of vegetation dynamics and trends in the tropics, e.g., Amazon rainforest, where the morning orbit Terra provides considerably more cloud-free observations compared to the afternoon Aqua measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory is the property of University of Chicago Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• Context: Copaifera species produce an oleoresin of commercial importance that is widely extracted in Amazon communities. • Aims: This paper addresses two questions. (1) What are the morphological characteristics of Copaifera species that influence oleoresin production? (2) How do different Copaifera species respond to repeated harvests? • Methods: We performed a large-scale experiment in the Brazilian Amazon. We tapped 110 Copaifera trees belonging to four species, and several morphological tree characteristics were measured to determine their effect on oleoresin production. • Results: The proportion of Copaifera reticulata and Copaifera paupera trees that yielded more than 1 ml oleoresin was higher than the other species. The oleoresin volumes from yielding Copaifera pubiflora trees were significantly higher than those from C. reticulata and C. paupera, with Copaifera multijuga yielding intermediate values. Interestingly, none of the studied morphological tree characteristics had a significant effect on the proportion of yielding trees. Hollowed trees yielded significantly smaller volumes than non-hollowed trees. Both the proportion of yielding trees and oleoresin volumes decreased from the first to the second harvests for C. reticulata and C. paupera; however, the opposite pattern was observed for C. pubiflora. • Conclusions: Oleoresin production capacity varies by species, and management protocols should account for these differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International boundaries in the lowland Amazon forest were historically drawn according to the scramble for natural resources. This paper uses a case study from the Peruvian and Brazilian border and the Ucayali and Jurua watersheds to understand the political ecology of a border process from contact to 2004. Results demonstrate how global resource demand and ecological gradients drove boundary formation and the relocation of indigenous labor to the borderlands. Forgotten in the forest after the fall of rubber prices, the borderland Ashaninka emerged to challenge loggers incited by the global demand for high grade timber. The transboundary impacts of this resource boom highlight discrepancies between the Brazilian and Peruvian Ashaninka's ability to mobilize power. A transboundary political ecology framework is necessary to grasp the heterogeneity and dynamism of natural resource management along boundaries and borderlands forged and tempered by historical resource booms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postdevelopment theorists often try to read 'alternatives to development' in the actions of local social movements or non-governmental organizations. More recent studies of development, however, emphasize the imbrication of state agendas with those of civil society. In the context of a major regional integration initiative in South America, this essay argues for the need to move beyond postdevelopment. Launched in 2000, IIRSA, the Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America, calls for a massive expansion of the continent's transport, energy and telecommunications networks and as such has the potential to redefine both the ecological and political-economic landscapes of South America. In particular, IIRSA's Amazonian mega-projects have prompted outcries from environmentalists and indigenous peoples. In examining some of the salient methods activists are using to challenge IIRSA, this paper takes issue with postdevelopment and argues that activists are not rejecting elite projects, but instead are engaging them. Activists generate this space of engagement by invoking and problematizing the idea of active citizenship. The essay ends by exploring the implications of such a strategy, emphasizing an awareness of the entanglements between civil society and dominant institutions through a consideration of development, environment and citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An efficient method for precipitation recycling calculations based on the general bulk recycling model is developed and applied to the Amazon basin region. The results are compared with the estimates provided by simplified recycling models, and with the estimations obtained in other studies. Then the numerical procedure is adjusted to the modified recycling model incorporating some effects of incomplete vertical mixing of water in the tropospheric column as described in Part I of this paper. The modified numerical model is applied to the Amazon basin region and the results are compared with those from the unmodified model. It is seen from the results that the effects related to an incomplete vertical mixing produce significant changes in the level and distribution of precipitation recycling over the Amazon basin. The general changes in the recycling patterns occurring as a result of modifications include a significant increase in the contribution of recycled water to precipitation in the eastern part of the region and weakening continental recycling gradients. The regional recycling ratio values for the Amazon basin estimated by the modified model are significantly higher than the values provided by the unmodified model. The results of application of the models to several other regions on the globe are described in short. In particular, a comparison of the results with the estimates by the modified Budyko model is made for different regions, and it is found that the modified Budyko's model estimates are, in general, closer to the modified model numerical results than it was for the unmodified models. The results for precipitation recycling over the central United States are presented in more detail. For this region, the information on the degree of incomplete vertical mixing available from the GCM tracer transport modeling results has been used in the modified model calculations. It has been found that, as distinct from the Amazon basin, the effects related to an incomplete vertical mixing do not produce significant changes in the level and distribution of precipitation recycling over the central United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When agricultural commodities are traded globally, consumer demand in one region influences the crops planted in another, often leading to widespread environmental and social transformation at the production sites. As a commodity crop that prospers in tropical environments, oil palm has become controversial for its role as a driver of deforestation and social conflict, especially in main producer countries in Southeast Asia. As suitable land for oil palm production in Southeast Asia is depleting, companies have begun to look to new production frontiers, such as Latin America. Colombia and Peru have the highest percentage growth in the sector in recent years, and the crop has become a dominant strategy for development in the Peruvian Amazon. Between 2000 and 2015, 40,000 hectares of old growth forest have been cleared for large oil palm plantations in Peru. Company-Community partnerships (CCPs) have been advanced as a potentially more socially and environmentally sustainable strategy, through their alleged capacity to provide greater productivity and more efficient land use on smallholder farms. This paper describes the social, political and deforestation impact of an oil palm CCP at the forest frontier in the Peruvian Amazon. An interdisciplinary and mixed methods research approach was employed, including long-term ethnographic work and visual measurement remote sensing of land use change on 2447 hectares of smallholder land in four villages/communities. The results show that the recent arrival of powerful private companies has caused a major socio-ecological shift on the ground, particularly through the CCP. On comparing participating farms to non-participating farms, we find significant deforestation 'spillage' out of the plantation into participating farms. A major underlying driver of the negative outcomes of the CCP is the neoliberal policy approach employed by the Peruvian government, which has outsourced basic rural public works to private companies. We conclude by discussing how a more socially and environmentally just oil palm production strategy in Peru and elsewhere might look. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After forest governance reforms by the Brazilian government, Amazon deforestation rates dropped by almost 80% between 2004 and 2012. Since then, however, deforestation has slowly increased again, casting doubts on the long-term sustainability of past conservation policy achievements. Clearly, deforestation rates and the associated local drivers of land-use and land-cover change differ considerably across the region, and adapting public policies to dynamic local contexts and actor constellations remains a major challenge for decision-makers. This paper seeks to contribute to the related science-policy debate by applying frontier theory insights to map, quantify, and compare land-cover dynamics in the Brazilian Amazon between 2004 and 2015. Our theoretical framework performs well in explaining broad variations in scope, nature, and agents of land-use and land-cover change across different frontier regions. We observe two types of transformative processes at deforestation frontiers in the Amazonian context. First, recent frontier development is characterized by an intensification of cattle ranching, and an increasing share of agricultural activities in the production portfolio, which could be the result of better access to modern technologies and markets, combined with forest governance induced scarcity of land for expansion of historically dominant extensive pasture systems. Second, the share of medium and large-scale deforestation declines at first, but rebounds during the observation period in all frontier types after 2012. Further research is needed to better understand the role of the changing political environment in driving these medium and short-term transformations in land-use and land-cover change. Furthermore, policy-makers, international cooperation, and civil society must seek strong integration between value chain based governance measures and effective environmental law enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Deverbal nominalizations are often said to occupy an intermediate position between nouns and verbs. Here I describe the morphological, syntactic, and semantic properties of three deverbal nominalization strategies in Shiwiar, a Chicham language of Ecuador and Peru. Although nouns and verbs in Shiwiar are clearly distinguished in the grammar, deverbal nominalizations display a combination of both nominal and verbal traits. Furthermore, the three nominalizations types discussed here each have different proportions of noun-like and verb-like characteristics, thereby forming a gradient cline between the two major word classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue that describe aspects of nominalization in six indigenous languages spoken in the western part of the Amazonian linguistic area.

Our aim with this paper is to present a novel approach for developing story lines and scenarios by combining qualitative knowledge and quantitative data from different disciplines and discussing the results with relevant decision makers. This research strategy offers a solid foundation for perspectives into the future. The "laboratory" is the Brazilian Amazon, one of the hotspots of land-use change where local and global interests both collide and converge: local livelihoods are affected by regional and global climate change and by the loss of biodiversity caused by local and global economic interests in agro-industrial land use; such use contributes, in turn, to climate change. After decades of diverse policy interventions the question arises: What can we learn from past trajectories for a more sustainable development in the future? To answer this question, we combined qualitative story lines for the region, reviewed by local experts, with quantitative land-use scenarios, to study their regional and local manifestations in space. These results were then discussed again with local and national experts. Our findings suggest that in-depth knowledge of the diverging perspectives at a very local level is a fundamental prerequisite for downscaling global scenarios and upscaling local approaches to sustainable land-use management and thus, to producing communicable and applicable results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently developed methodologies such as climate reanalysis make it possible to create a historical record of climate systems. This paper proposes a methodology called Hydrological Retrospective (HR), which essentially simulates large rainfall datasets, using this as input into hydrological models to develop a record of past hydrology, making it possible to analyze past floods and droughts. We developed a methodology for the Amazon basin, where studies have shown an increase in the intensity and frequency of hydrological extreme events in recent decades. We used eight large precipitation datasets (more than 30 years) as input for a large scale hydrological and hydrodynamic model (MGB-IPH). HR products were then validated against several in situ discharge gauges controlling the main Amazon sub-basins, focusing on maximum and minimum events. For the most accurate HR, based on performance metrics, we performed a forecast skill of HR to detect floods and droughts, comparing the results with in-situ observations. A statistical temporal series trend was performed for intensity of seasonal floods and droughts in the entire Amazon basin. Results indicate that HR could represent most past extreme events well, compared with in-situ observed data, and was consistent with many events reported in literature. Because of their flow duration, some minor regional events were not reported in literature but were captured by HR. To represent past regional hydrology and seasonal hydrological extreme events, we believe it is feasible to use some large precipitation datasets such as i) climate reanalysis, which is mainly based on a land surface component, and ii) datasets based on merged products. A significant upward trend in intensity was seen in maximum annual discharge (related to floods) in western and northwestern regions and for minimum annual discharge (related to droughts) in south and central-south regions of the Amazon basin. Because of the global coverage of rainfall datasets, this methodology can be transferred to other regions for better estimation of future hydrological behavior and its impact on society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forests represent an important role in the control of atmospheric emissions through carbon capture. However, in forest fires, the carbon stored during photosynthesis is released into the atmosphere. The carbon quantification, in forest burning, is important for the development of measures for its control. The aim of this study was to quantify CO 2 and CO emissions of forest fires in Western Amazonia. In this paper, results are described of forest fire experiments conducted in Cruzeiro do Sul and Rio Branco, state of Acre, and Candeias do Jamari, state of Rondônia, Brazil. These cities are located in the Western portion of the Brazilian Amazon region. The biomass content per hectare, in the virgin forest, was measured by indirect methods using formulas with parameters of forest inventories in the central hectare of the test site. The combustion completeness was estimated by randomly selecting 10% of the total logs and twelve 2 × 2 m 2 areas along three transects and examining their consumption rates by the fire. The logs were used to determine the combustion completeness of the larger materials (characteristic diameters larger than 10 cm) and the 2 × 2 m 2 areas to determine the combustion completeness of small-size materials (those with characteristic diameters lower than 10 cm) and the. The overall biomass consumption by fire was estimated to be 40.0%, 41.2% and 26.2%, in Cruzeiro do Sul, Rio Branco and Candeias do Jamari, respectively. Considering that the combustion gases of carbon in open fires contain approximately 90.0% of CO 2 and 10.0% of CO in volumetric basis, the average emission rates of these gases by the burning process, in the three sites, were estimated as 191 ± 46.7 t ha −1 and 13.5 ± 3.3 t ha −1 , respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of agricultural and livestock activities on tropical forests often results in long-lasting damage to soil and vegetation. In undisturbed tropical forests, nutrient stocks tend to be larger in the aboveground biomass than in the soil profile; therefore, deforested sites may remain bare for decades due to nutrient limitation. In such circumstance, amelioration of edaphic conditions and planting of tree species adapted to open canopy conditions (pioneers) could help restore ecosystem functions while providing a sustainable source of timber and prompting natural succession. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of biochar as a soil amendment that could accelerate the reforestation of degraded lands. We used a randomized block design with five treatments and four replications, comparing the performance of exotic eucalyptus ( Eucalyptus urophylla × Eucalyptus grandis ) and native Tachigali vulgaris trees. We monitored reforested plots for 49 months, evaluating tree survival and growth rates, litter production, canopy cover and density of invasive grasses. The addition of biochar in the soil did not result in significant differences in tree survival or productivity when compared to controls. Comparing the two species, native trees ( T. vulgaris ) performed better by all metrics, showing 52% survival and producing 241.7 Mg ha −1 of aboveground biomass after four years of growth. During that same period the survival rate of eucalyptus was 38% and the aboveground productivity was only 82.4 Mg ha −1 . In contrast with eucalyptus plantations, T. vulgaris showed rapid canopy cover and completely suppressed invasive grasses, generating up to 11.7 Mg ha −1 more litter than eucalyptus trees. Although eucalyptus is one of the most commonly used species in reforestation for timber, charcoal, and pulp and paper production in Brazil, our results demonstrate that T. vulgaris has the potential to replace eucalyptus in commercial plantations with the added benefit of being a native species that can promote the establishment of a stable forest cover in degraded sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon released approximately 5.7 billion tons of CO 2 to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010, and 50–80% of this deforestation was for pasture. Most assume that increasing demand for cattle products produced in Brazil caused this deforestation, but the empirical work to-date on cattle documents only correlations between cattle herd size, pasture expansion, cattle prices, and deforestation. This paper uses panel data on deforestation and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) status—an exogenous demand shifter—to estimate whether changes in FMD status caused new deforestation in municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon and cerrado biomes during the 2000–2010 period. Results suggest that, on average, becoming certified as FMD-free caused a temporary spike in deforestation in the 2 years after a municipality became FMD-free, but caused subsequent deforestation to decline relative to infected municipalities during the 2000–2010 period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a specific mapping exercise undertaken by cartographers in the American Geographical Society during the 1930s as part of a larger project to construct a 1:1,000,000 map of Central and South America, the so-called "Map of Hispanic America." The particular focus is the region around Mount Roraima on the triple border point of Brazil, Venezuela and what was then British Guiana. This was one of the more isolated areas of Amazonia, an apparently pristine wilderness far from the encroachments of European colonization and an area frequently depicted in the media as a 'lost world,' bypassed by history and home to unknown species of flora and fauna that had survived from earlier geological periods. The compilation of a new and accurate map of Roraima presented several problems for the AGS cartographers whose desire to create a rational, scientific representation of the region was continually confronted by colorful myths and legends promoted by novelists, journalists, and cinematographers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric carbon dioxide records indicate that the land surface has acted as a strong global carbon sink over recent decades, with a substantial fraction of this sink probably located in the tropics, particularly in the Amazon. Nevertheless, it is unclear how the terrestrial carbon sink will evolve as climate and atmospheric composition continue to change. Here we analyse the historical evolution of the biomass dynamics of the Amazon rainforest over three decades using a distributed network of 321 plots. While this analysis confirms that Amazon forests have acted as a long-term net biomass sink, we find a long-term decreasing trend of carbon accumulation. Rates of net increase in above-ground biomass declined by one-third during the past decade compared to the 1990s. This is a consequence of growth rate increases levelling off recently, while biomass mortality persistently increased throughout, leading to a shortening of carbon residence times. Potential drivers for the mortality increase include greater climate variability, and feedbacks of faster growth on mortality, resulting in shortened tree longevity. The observed decline of the Amazon sink diverges markedly from the recent increase in terrestrial carbon uptake at the global scale, and is contrary to expectations based on models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of Local Environmental Knowledge has been considered as an important strategy for adaptive management in the face of Global Environmental Change. However, the unprecedented rates at which global change occurs may pose a challenge to the adaptive capacity of local knowledge systems. In this paper, we use the concept of the shifting baseline syndrome to examine the limits in the adaptive capacity of the local knowledge of an indigenous society facing rapid ecosystem change. We conducted semi-structured interviews regarding perceptions of change in wildlife populations and in intergenerational transmission of knowledge amongst the Tsimane’, a group of hunter-gatherers of Bolivian Amazonia ( n = 300 adults in 13 villages). We found that the natural baseline against which the Tsimane’ measure ecosystem changes might be shifting with every generation as a result of (a) age-related differences in the perception of change and (b) a decrease in the intergenerational sharing of environmental knowledge. Such findings suggest that local knowledge systems might not change at a rate quick enough to adapt to conditions of rapid ecosystem change, hence potentially compromising the adaptive success of the entire social-ecological system. With the current pace of Global Environmental Change, widening the gap between the temporal rates of on-going ecosystem change and the timescale needed for local knowledge systems to adjust to change, efforts to tackle the shifting baseline syndrome are urgent and critical for those who aim to use Local Environmental Knowledge as a tool for adaptive management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preservation of Amazonian natural forests is of utmost national and international interest. The exploration of market opportunities for the commercialization of forest goods and services has become the prevailing conservation approach. It is likely that the generation of income from forests will motivate forest owners and users to appreciate and use their resources more sustainably. After more than 20 years of applying, adjusting and expanding this approach, this paper critically reflects on its main assumptions, successes and consequences with a special emphasis on the Amazon's natural forests. Over time, three major strategies have been outlined to translate the approach into practice: (1) the management of timber by logging companies in forest concessions, (2) the use of timber and non-timber forest products by smallholders and communities, and (3) the selling of environmental services that forests provide, in particular carbon. The analysis revealed that the commercialization of goods and services from natural forests has indeed the potential to generate income, yet their financial attractiveness is rather limited if compared with other land use options. This seriously affects the probability that forest-related uses at a wider scale will be successful. It also became evident that the legal-institutional framework set up to facilitate economic gains from the forests' commercial potential tended to discriminate against traditional forest users who, due to disparate reasons, would be willing to accept the modest financial returns from managing natural forests in commercial ways. It is discussed that the feasibility of market approaches, in contrast to the assumptions of free market environmentalism, depends on effective measures to strengthen the role and market position of local forest users and on initiatives from firms to invest in the establishment of more sustainable commodities even when a reduction in profits are a possibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Patterns of surface sediment concentration distribution in rivers are significant for understanding fluvial morphodynamics and environmental characteristics of the rivers and their floodplains. In the case of the Amazon Basin, complexity in sediment pattern distribution is affected by the anabranching channel pattern of the Amazon River, inputs from tributaries (some of which are among the largest rivers on Earth) and the existence of huge and complex floodplains. In this paper, patterns of surface sediment distribution are modeled based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data over the Amazon River by estimating surface sediment concentrations. Specifically, we aim to 1) detect the regional and seasonal variability of surface sediment in the main channel, 2) observe the influence of tributaries into the main system, 3) identify channel-floodplain interactions, and 4) investigate the internal variability of surface sediment along the main channel system. Field surface sediment concentration data from three gauging stations representing the upstream, midstream, and downstream sections of the Amazon River between 2000 and 2010 were used to calibrate 1328 MODIS daily surface reflectance images. Robust empirical models were derived between field surface sediment concentration and surface reflectance data from each station (0.79

In rural development, women's access to land is recognized as a condition for reaching gender equality. This contribution discusses the tension between this formal recognition and concrete realities in rural development for traditional Amazonian communities by examining large-scale land acquisitions in Brazil, a land-abundant developing country, in the wake of the 2007–08 global food price crises. This study applies anthropological and legal perspectives to analyze problems related to gender inequality caused by large-scale land acquisitions. It argues that inequalities cannot be resolved by simply changing regulations related to traditional communities’ and women's rights and that gender relations and land tenure issues reflect interconnected social arrangements based on historical specificities of traditional communities. Case studies show that land acquisitions by outsiders disrupt these arrangements, despite stated commitments to social and environmental responsibility. Such “coercive harmony” is only unmasked when communities are conscious of their rights, enabling effective use of the legal apparatus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The reconstruction of past environmental and historical events is much needed in Amazonia, a region at the centre of heated debates about the extent of pre-Columbian human disturbance of the natural ecosystems. Important aspects of this debate are to establish to what extent the rise of social complexity was influenced by the local geo-ecology; and what productive strategies were adopted in order to sustain these societies. The Llanos de Moxos (LM), in the Bolivian Amazon, is a vast floodplain made up of a variety of geo-ecological sub regions that host many different types of pre-Columbian earthworks. Therefore, it offers an excellent opportunity to compare different kinds of archaeological landscapes and their relationship to different pre-Columbian cultures and environmental settings. This paper analyses the links between pre-Columbian earthworks and the local geo-ecology in two regions of the LM: 1) the platform field region (PFR) in the north of Santa Ana de Yacuma, where the highest concentration of raised fields has been documented, and 2) the monumental mounds region (MMR) south and east of Trinidad, where >100 pre-Columbian monumental mounds are found. The study draws from remote sensing and GIS analysis, field work in the Bolivian lowlands, and laboratory analysis. Differences in the way people transformed the landscape in the PFR and MMR seem to respond to differences in the local geo-ecology of the two sites. The results also suggest that environmental conditions exerted an important, though not exclusive, control over the levels of social complexity that were reached in different areas of the LM. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Time series analysis is a common tool in environmental and ecological studies to construct models to explain and forecast serially correlated data. There are several statistical techniques that are used to deal with univariate and multivariate (more than one series) chronological patterns of fisheries data. In this paper, an additive stochastic model is proposed with explicative and predictive features to capture the main seasonal patterns and trends of a fisheries system in the Amazon. The model is constructed on the assumption that the multivariate response variable – vector containing fishery yield of eight periodic species and the total fishery yield – can be decomposed into three terms: an autoregression of the response vector, an exogenous environmental variable (river level), and a seasonal component (significant frequencies obtained by using spectral analysis and the periodogram indicating the regularity of periodic cycles in the natural and fisheries system). The estimation procedure is carried out via maximum likelihood estimation. The model explained, on average, 78% of the variability in yield of the study species. The model represents the optimal solution (minimum mean square mean error) among the class of all multivariate autoregressive processes with exogenous and seasonal variables. Predictions for one period ahead are provided to illustrate how the model works in practice. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]