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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]

This article discusses the policies of protection for indigenous people and the environmentalist manifesto for the excluded in Amazonian countries. It addresses the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and the resolution of the General Assembly that qualifies the effects of climate change as threats to international security. Both lead to cognitive constructions for social justice. The paper reminds us of the invasion of lands by disorderly immigration. More importantly, it unveils the analytical potential offered by the study of international relations to clarify the perspectives of both the mitigation of climate change through the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and the excluded majority that lives alongside the protected indigenous minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]