A Look at Amazon Basin Seasonal Dynamics with the Biophysical ...

Deforestation Patterns and Household Determinants of Land Use Choices by RubberTapper in Amazonia: The Case of the Chico Mendes Reserve in Acre, BrazilCarlos V. Gomes 1 , Hiromi S. Sassagawa 2 , I. Foster Brown 2,3 , and Stephen Perz 41 Ph.D. Student. Dept. of Geography, University of Florida, email: valerio@ufl.edu; 2SETEM/Federal University of Acre, email: hiromi@mdnet.com.br; 3 Woods HoleResearch Center and Federal Fluminense University, email: fbrown@whrc.org; 4 Dept. ofSociology, University of Florida, email: sperz@soc.ufl.eduThe Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve (CMER), with nearly one million hectares, hasexperienced different levels of land use change as a response to local and regionaleconomic forces and prevailing social stresses. This study provides both a reserve and ahousehold level approach of measuring land-use changes. General patterns ofdeforestation are analyzed at the reserve level, and household characteristics affectingland use choices are analyzed at the household level. At the reserve level, TM-Landsat-5data from 1986, 1992, and 1998 were utilized to quantify deforestation rates. At thehousehold level, in-depth interviews were carried out with 66 households. Reserve levelfindings show that the CMER has experienced accelerating small-scale deforestation. Theoverall deforestation level in the CMER was 0.7% in 1986, 1.5% in 1996, and 2.9% in1998. The deforestation process does not occur uniformly across the reserve. Eightseringais (rubber tapper estates), which represent about 12% of the reserve territory,presented the highest deforestation rates and are closer to reach the legal limit fordeforestation of 10%, as determined by the Utilization Plan of the reserve. Householdlevel findings shows that the age of the household heads and the locations of theseringais have a strong association with rubber and Brazil nut production, which suggestthat older household heads tend to engage in forest activities. The availability of sons ofhousehold heads exerts a strong effect on pasture and cattle raising activities, whichsuggests that non-forest activities tend to be carried out by the young residents. Themigrant status accentuates agricultural activities, implying that non-migrant householdstend to engage in forest activities. Understanding which factors are driving these changeswill hopefully contribute to the strengthening of sustainable land-use managementstrategies in the CMER and in other extractive communities in Amazonia