Search

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9787.2007.00519.x Byline: Eugenio Y. Arima (1), Cynthia S. Simmons (2), Robert T. Walker (3), Mark A. Cochrane (4) Abstract: ABSTRACT. This article implements a spatially explicit model to estimate the probability of forest and agricultural fires in the Brazilian Amazon. We innovate by using variables that reflect farm-gate prices of beef and soy, and also provide a conceptual model of field management and deforestation fires to simulate the impact of road-paving, cattle exports, and conservation area designation on the occurrence of fire. Our analysis shows that fire is positively correlated with the price of beef and soy, and that the creation of new conservation units may offset the negative environmental impacts caused by the increasing number of fire events associated with early stages of frontier development. Author Affiliation: (1)Department of Environmental Studies, Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Instituto do Homem e Meio Ambiente da Amazonia, Brazil, 318 Stern Hall, Geneva, NY 14456. E-mail:arima@hws.edu (2)Department of Geography, Michigan State University, 231 Geography Building, East Lansing, MI 48824. E-mail:simmo108@msu.edu (3)Department of Geography, Michigan State University, 116 Geography Building, East Lansing, MI 48824. E-mail:rwalker@msu.edu (4)GIScience Center of Excellence, South Dakota State University, 1021 Medary Ave., Wecota Hall, Box 506B, Brookings, SD 57007. E-mail:mark.cochrane@sdstate.edu Article History: Received: August 2005; revised: June 2006; accepted: October 2006.

The Brazilian government has promoted development in Amazonia for over forty years. Nevertheless, improvement of rural conditions has been limited. Although tropical deforestation has been the premier concern in discussions about Amazonia, this article focuses instead on the human dimensions of development and the apparent failings of social policy in the region. In so doing, the article argues that what we observe today represents the consequence of conflicting development strategies, brought about by shifting national priorities that were influenced, in part, by international pressures. The article makes this argument by first presenting an overview of development strategies pursued since the mid-twentieth century, followed by a description of shifting national priorities linked to pressures from the international community regarding indigenous rights and environmental concern. Finally, this article presents a GIS-based case study focused on the state of Para, demonstrating the spatial articulation of contradictory policies and showing the overlap and conflict between competing interests. These spaces of conflict are supported by actual accounts of disputes at the local level. Key Words: Amazonian development, environmental policy, GIS and remote sensing, indigenous rights, land conflict.

This paper examines the relationship between cultural variation and forest management practices in the New World tropics by presenting results from a survey conducted in indigenous and colonist communities in a settlement frontier of Panama. Statistical analyses, focused specifically on differences between the economic base, forest use, and management practices of indigenous and colonist households, are presented. The findings reveal that there are no significant differences between the indigenous and colonist households in this respect; furthermore, differences that exist among the sample households appear to be linked to access to market and not to cultural variations. Key words - Latin America, Panama, frontier development, forest management, reforestation, deforestation

This article considers Amazonian environmental change by focusing on political and economic processes in a place-specific context with far-reaching global implications. In particular, we consider the destruction of the Brazil nut forest (BNF) in the lower basin. The Brazil nut tree yields a valuable nontimber forest product, and its loss raises concerns about Amazonia's agro-ecological sustainability. The article posits the destruction of the BNF as an outcome of land creation, the transformation of soil surfaces into a production factor for market-oriented agriculture. Land creation in the lower basin sparked violent conflict, with the destruction of the BNF as collateral damage. Our account complements earlier research on the political economy of Amazonian development by providing an update tuned to the institutional and economic changes that have led to the region's engagement with globalized beef markets and to the transformative impact on implicated actors (i.e., peasant, capital, and the state). In addition, the article uses the BNF case to consider current threats to Amazonia. In Brazil, deforestation rates declined after the turn of the millennium, due to environmental policy. Recent numbers show deforestation on the rise, however, as South American nations fast-track large infrastructure projects to transform Amazonia into a transport hub and a continental source of hydropower. The article questions whether Brazil's environmental policies will sustain the Amazonian forest over the long run; the BNF disappeared despite efforts at conservation buttressed by legislative action. The article uses data from surveys, remote sensing, regional newspapers, and secondary sources based on declassified documents from Brazil's Armed Forces, the National Truth Commission, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactions between distant places are increasingly widespread and influential, often leading to unexpected outcomes with profound implications for sustainability. Numerous sustainability studies have been conducted within a particular place with little attention to the impacts of distant interactions on sustainability in multiple places. Although distant forces have been studied, they are usually treated as exogenous variables and feedbacks have rarely been considered. To understand and integrate various distant interactions better, we propose an integrated framework based on telecoupling, an umbrella concept that refers to socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances. The concept of telecoupling is a logical extension of research on coupled human and natural systems, in which interactions occur within particular geographic locations. The telecoupling framework contains five major interrelated components, i.e., coupled human and natural systems, flows, agents, causes, and effects. We illustrate the framework using two examples of distant interactions associated with trade of agricultural commodities and invasive species, highlight the implications of the framework, and discuss research needs and approaches to move research on telecouplings forward. The framework can help to analyze system components and their interrelationships, identify research gaps, detect hidden costs and untapped benefits, provide a useful means to incorporate feedbacks as well as trade-offs and synergies across multiple systems (sending, receiving, and spillover systems), and improve the understanding of distant interactions and the effectiveness of policies for socioeconomic and environmental sustainability from local to global levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]