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This paper uses the themes of language rights, language choice, and language risk to consider linguistic insecurity in the Northwest Amazon (Upper Negro river) region of Brazil. Because the region is home to a large number of languages (c. two dozen), the idea of preserving this diversity is a popular theme in discourses about language in the Upper Negro river. I argue that the ideologies underlying the goal of preserving 'diversity' as a concept are not, in fact, the same ones that have sustained the presence of these languages thus far, especially as concerns the Tukanoan languages of the Uaupés basin (Jackson, J. E. 1983. The Fish People: Linguistic Exogamy and Tukanoan Identity in Northwest Amazonia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press). Paradoxically, the reification of 'diversity' as a characteristic of the Northwest Amazonian Indigenous population has tended to promote homogenisation among groups that have historically valued differentiation from one another. In examining ideologies and practices surrounding each of the three themes of this issue, I suggest that discourses of 'diversity', applied at the local level, can create complex outcomes for the languages they are used to promote. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the eighteenth century, Portuguese settlers in Amazonia captured thousands of turtles and crushed millions of their eggs. These turtles, especially the Giant South American River Turtle (Podocnemis expansa), gave these settlers two essential resources: meat and oil. Though there is a rich historiography on turtle hunting, important social and environmental dimensions of the practice in Amazonia during the colonial period have been overlooked. In this paper we focus on how turtles played a key role in the diet and domestic needs of Portuguese settlers in the Amazon rainforest and explore the shape and magnitude of colonialism's impact on these animals. The turtles became prime targets for Portuguese settlers because they were abundant and had characteristics and behavior that made them easy prey. Though P. expansa did not become extinct, Portuguese hunting had enduring impacts on their distribution and abundance that merit consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Gazetting and maintaining protected areas (PAs) are political processes and, as such, depend on wider society's support in order to achieve their aims. In this paper, we evaluated the influence of gender, education, age, income, place of origin and place of residence on public support for PAs in the Brazilian state of Amapá, a new tropical forest frontier. We gathered 615 complete interviews with adults living in both rural and urban settings. We found that most (90.5%) of the participants support PAs and that this attitude is more likely to exist among urban than rural participants. We found that gender, education, age, income and place of origin did not influence support for PAs. Biodiversity conservation is the most common reason why PAs receive public support. In contrast, participants who do not favour PAs see them as providing no benefit to people. We suggest that support by local political leaders from dominant and rival political parties for conservation helps to promote acceptance of PAs by stakeholders. However, relatively low support for PAs among rural participants could indicate that the expectations of these populations regarding the social benefits associated with this conservation policy have yet to be fulfilled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object/context: Natural parks are usually presented as the most important state-led strategy to promote the environmental conservation of a particular area. However, scarce anthropological and political science literature on this topic suggests that natural parks contribute to consolidate state power as well. This article explains how natural parks achieve said goal by studying the declaration and the initial years of the Alto Fragua-Indi Wasi Natural Park (located in Caquetá, Colombia). Methodology: The data for this study was gathered from official documents, historical archives and at least twenty in-depth interviews with state officials and social leaders. Conclusions: The article argues three central points. First, natural parks favor state power because they tend to make population and territories more legible. Second, there are six types of state legibility (convergent, denied, agreed, imposed, stopped and indifferent), which correspond to the historical moment and the social actors that relate to the state. Third, state legibility in the Alto Fragua- Indi Wasi Natural Park increased as the result of a political process characterized by the convergence of state and social interests. Contribution: The article provides conceptual and empirical tools to illustrate how natural parks strengthen the state and make state-society relations more complex. In general terms, this research paper is an invitation to study problems related to the state's environmental and territorial planning from the optic of political science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• SWAF-HR data is new water surface extent product at 1 km over the Amazon basin from 2010 to 2016 every 3 days. • SWAF-HR provided from the fusion of three datasets: water surface fraction at coarse spatial resolution from an L-band passive microwave sensor (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity – SMOS), Global Surface Water Occurrence from Landsat (GSWO) and the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) Multi-Error-Removed-Terrain (MERIT) based on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. • The flooded area of the Branco floodplain (Roraima) varies from 0.2 times 104 to 2.7 × 104 km2 whereas the extent of the Bolivian floodplain (Llanos de Moxos) inundation ranges between 0.8 × 104 and 8.1 × 104 km2 during 2010–2016. • The choice of the DEM in the downscaling process introduces 5% of error in the instantaneous water surface extent estimate but can reach up to 10% in the flood probability estimations over seven years. • (MERIT) based on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). In this paper, we present a methodology to map inland water in tropical areas under dense vegetation at high spatial and temporal resolution using multi-source remote sensing data. A new inundation product (SWAF-HR) is presented. It is characterized by a high spatial resolution (30′, 1 km) and high temporal resolution (3 days). The SWAF-HR product is estimated over the Amazon basin for the 2010–2016 period. It is based on a downscaling procedure and the synergistic use of: (1) water surface fraction at coarse spatial resolution from an L-band passive microwave sensor (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity – SMOS), (2) Global Surface Water Occurrence from Landsat (GSWO) and (3) the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) Multi-Error-Removed-Improved-Terrain (MERIT) based on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Thanks to the high capability of L-band microwave emission to reveal surface water under all-weather conditions and beneath the vegetation, the inundated area extent estimated by the SWAF-HR product is always larger than GSWO estimates obtained by the optical sensor (Landsat). SWAF-HR data is compared to ESA CCI and IGBP land covers, two SAR images and flooded areas over the Purus basin computed by the MGB-IPH model simulation. The results show the coherence of spatial and temporal dynamics of the SWAF-HR data. We show that the flooded area of the Branco River floodplain in Roraima (Brazil) varies from 0.2 × 104 to 2.7 × 104 km2 whereas the extent of the Bolivian floodplain (Llanos de Moxos) inundation ranges between 0.8 × 104 and 8.1 × 104 km2 during 2010–2016. The flooded area in the Branco floodplain gradually decreased from 2010 to 2015 but in 2016, the flooded area has increased during the rainy season. During 2010–2016, the minimum of the inundated surface extent was reached during 2015–2016 reflecting to a drought event related to ENSO. The most important uncertainties of the DEM are located over tropical areas but this information is essential in the downscaling procedure. Therefore, we investigate the impact of the choice of the DEM for the downscaling procedure. It is found that the choice of the DEM introduces 5% of error in the instantaneous water surface extent estimate but can reach up to 10% in the flood probability estimations over seven years. This new SWAF-HR product will be helpful for the understanding of the water, carbon and biogeochemical cycles of the Amazon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydropower has been the leading source of renewable energy across theworld, accounting for up to 71% of this supply as of 2016. This capacity was built up in North America and Europe between 1920 and 1970 when thousands of dams were built. Big dams stopped being built in developed nations, because the best sites for dams were already developed and environmental and social concerns made the costs unacceptable. Nowadays, more dams are being removed in North America and Europe than are being built. The hydropower industry moved to building dams in the developing world and since the 1970s, began to build even larger hydropower dams along the Mekong River Basin, the Amazon River Basin, and the Congo River Basin. The same problems are being repeated: disrupting river ecology, deforestation, losing aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity, releasing substantial greenhouse gases, displacing thousands of people, and altering people's livelihoods plus affecting the food systems, water quality, and agriculture near them. This paper studies the proliferation of large dams in developing countries and the importance of incorporating climate change into considerations of whether to build a dam along with some of the governance and compensation challenges. We also examine the overestimation of benefits and underestimation of costs along with changes that are needed to address the legitimate social and environmental concerns of people living in areas where dams are planned. Finally, we propose innovative solutions that can move hydropower toward sustainable practices together with solar, wind, and other renewable sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the ability of Sustainable Development Reserves to embed (in Karl Polanyi's sense) the economy into the environment through the development of protocols for the sustainable management of natural resources. Based on two decades of work in the Mamirauá and Amanã Sustainable Development Reserves, we question whether the results are good, fair and viable by comparing two alternatives: unregulated markets and fully protected reserves. We evaluate the interest in sustainability; discuss who benefits and who pays for it; reflect on its potential to reduce inequalities; and discuss its economic and political viability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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 provides an ethnographic analysis of lessons given by an Amazonian Indian elder called Txema concerning transactions of objects and images. Txema has lived until 1978 in the Amazon as a hunter and farmer in very small communities spread in the forest mainly avoiding conflict with non-indigenous people. The Matis established contact with the Brazilians in 1978 and now Txema deals with British TV crews and researchers. This paper brings detailed information on how Txema transacts many objects like outboard engines and mosquito nets for images and care. Values are discussed in those transactions. Drawing an ethnographic description as the way to achieve reflection, this paper tries to show a close approach to what kind of transformation a lot of industrialized objects provoke in an indigenous community. Material culture exchanges are closely related to values and Txema teaches us what is valuable for this elder Amazonian man. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the main themes-we are here; this is who we are; insurgent citizenship; Amazon Nation-elaborated in this collection of papers on new Amazonian geographies, and extends their implications to ideas about governmentality and regional identity. The article contextualizes the papers in this issue through understanding Amazonia's role in the structuring of the contemporary Brazilian state through resistance to conventional modernist authoritarian development planning, and the creation of current places and politics through the assertion of new forms of citizenship, identity, governance and the rise of socio-environmentalisms as part of a new 'statecraft' from below. Modern Amazonia has reasserted itself by developing a set of alternative epistemes and practices which can be seen, in their language and ideologies, to invoke the idea of the 'Amazon nation.' This article emphasizes the cultural underpinnings of these processes in a contested Amazon that is now a major supplier of global agricultural commodities in its deforested landscapes, and pivotal for local livelihoods and planetary environmental services in its forested ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The present paper considers a sometimes contentious process of land reform presently occurring in Brazil. This process, referred to in the paper as Direct Action Land Reform (DALR), involves organizations such as the Landless Rural Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, or MST) and more spontaneous actions of individuals desiring a piece of land for their own. Results of a survey covering 751 households engaged in such land reform actions in the Brazilian Amazon are presented, in order to describe participants and land reform processes. Evidently, social movement organizations provide for a modest degree of wealth accumulation, a welfare improvement that must be set against potential environmental costs. The paper concludes by calling attention to the challenge DALR may ultimately pose to the Brazilian state. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The present paper describes the contentious process of settlement formation of a particular type of land reform settlement, which we call "spontaneous" direct action land reform. In addition, the paper place the settlement formation process within a land cover and land use framework by describing the underlying processes that lead to spontaneous settlement formation in terra devoluta in the Brazilian Amazon. The paper concludes with policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The immediate postpartum period is recognized as a special time in many societies and is commonly associated with food and work restrictions. The logic of food restrictions during a period of increased energy and protein needs has been challenged, but few data are available to test the impact of these practices on the diets of lactating women. In the eastern Amazon the immediate postpartum period is referred to as resguardo, lasts for 40–41 days and includes food taboos and work restrictions. Taking a biocultural perspective, this paper combines data on the beliefs and attitudes surrounding the practice of resguardo with quantitative data on the actual dietary intakes and activity patterns of a cohort of 23 lactating women followed from birth through 15 months postpartum. This paper addresses three topics: (1) shared ideals regarding resguardo; (2) adherence to food and work restrictions; and (3) the impact of these practices on women''s dietary intakes and energy expenditure. The results show that the majority of women adhered to food taboos and work restrictions. During resguardo energy expenditure in physical activity was lower, reducing women''s energy needs and allowing them to devote more time to infant care. However, energy intakes were also lower. The reduction in dietary intake was impacted more by work restrictions and the loss of women in subsistence tasks during resguardo than by adherence to food taboos. In addition to altering maternal energetic strategies, resguardo served an important social function by reinforcing bonds and, for young women, marking the transition to womanhood. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Government regulations have created new markets for non-timber forest products such as tropical forest seeds for ecological restoration and agroforestry in Brazil. This paper examines whether and how participation in the seed market has affected assets that will shape households’ ability to pursue new livelihood opportunities. These impacts may vary across different dimensions of capital and among sociocultural groups. Impacts were characterized through semi-structured interviews following the sustainable livelihoods approach; 40 producers in the Xingu Seed Network, from settler farmer, urban and indigenous groups, were interviewed. The groups differed in perceptions of impacts on their natural, social and human capital, which could be related to the sociocultural background and vulnerability context of each group. Communities that were already organized were most likely to strengthen their social capital through participation. Cash income earned from sale of seeds was correlated with household-reported gains in financial capital, but not correlated with changes in other dimensions of capital. Contrary to expectations, sociocultural groups less integrated with the market achieved better livelihood outcomes through participation in the seed market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Protected areas anchor the ecological infrastructure that societies need for long-term prosperity and provide benefits to local, national, and global stakeholders. However, these areas continue to go unfunded. In this paper, we have provided the first estimate of the return on investment for nine large protected areas that compose the core of the ecological infrastructure of the State of Amapá, which is located in a new forest frontier in Brazilian Amazonia. These nine protected areas will require US $147.2 million over five years in order to be established and then US $32.7 million in annual recurrent costs. If implemented, these nine protected areas have the potential to contribute at least US $362.4 million per year in benefits (timber, non-timber forest products, nature-based tourism, fisheries, and carbon) to the local economy. The return on investment (ROI) of these protected areas will be 1.6% during the first five years and 10% thereafter; however, ROI could reach 45.8% or more if option and non-use values are also included as benefits. Although the costs of establishing the protected area system in Amapá are higher (US $3.2–3.5 ha − 1 y − 1 ) than the costs reported in other tropical forest regions (US $0.2–0.4 ha − 1 y − 1 ), the investments required are within the reach of both state and national governments. Our study shows that if fully implemented, protected areas can become engines for socio-economic upliftment, making the conservation-centered development model a feasible option for most of the world's new forest frontiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Amazon environment has been exposed in the last decades to radical changes that have been accompanied by a remarkable rise of both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax malaria. The malaria transmission process is highly influenced by factors such as spatial and temporal heterogeneities of the environment and individual-based characteristics of mosquitoes and humans populations. All these determinant factors can be simulated effectively trough agent-based models. Methods: This paper presents a validated agent-based model of local-scale malaria transmission. The model reproduces the environment of a typical riverine village in the northern Peruvian Amazon, where the malaria transmission is highly seasonal and apparently associated with flooding of large areas caused by the neighbouring river. Agents representing humans, mosquitoes and the two species of Plasmodium (P. falciparum and P. vivax) are simulated in a spatially explicit representation of the environment around the village. The model environment includes: climate, people houses positions and elevation. A representation of changes in the mosquito breeding areas extension caused by the river flooding is also included in the simulation environment. Results: A calibration process was carried out to reproduce the variations of the malaria monthly incidence over a period of 3 years. The calibrated model is also able to reproduce the spatial heterogeneities of local scale malaria transmission. A "what if" eradication strategy scenario is proposed: if the mosquito breeding sites are eliminated through mosquito larva habitat management in a buffer area extended at least 200 m around the village, the malaria transmission is eradicated from the village. Conclusions: The use of agent-based models can reproduce effectively the spatiotemporal variations of the malaria transmission in a low endemicity environment dominated by river floodings like in the Amazon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world today is an urban world. While rural to urban migration has contributed significantly to the increased urbanization of the globe, that process has not always been as clear and permanent as it appears. In this paper we report on the migration of smallholders to peri-urban interface ( PUI) zones in western Pará state, Brazil. We found that rural-urban migrants were constrained by their lack of marketable skills and as a consequence had few job prospects and experienced a low quality of life in the cities to which they had migrated. This led them to resettle in places at the PUI where they have the ability to supplement limited wages with more familiar subsistence activities, which reflected cultural identity and rural antecedents while enjoying a higher quality of life. The recent implementation in Brazil of a variety of conditional cash-transfer programs has added to the attractiveness of peri-urban places and contributes to a regional shift to livelihoods based on a combination of agriculture and extractivism supplemented by support from federal assistance programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current article is foregrounded on the relevant trajectory of the press as an object of historiographic reflection, with special reference to its geographical expansion in Brazil between the late 19th century and the early 20th century. It was precisely during this period that there was a displacement from the great urban centers and reached far and remote spaces. The paper deals with recent studies on the press in the Amazon underscoring the need for transpositioning of an annoying historiographic silence on the experiences within small villages and towns in the Amazon mobilized by an expanding rubber economy and based on a strong migratory movement to the region´s rubber trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Air pollution in the Brazilian Amazon leads to increases in hospitalization rates. • Adverse effects are concentrated in respiratory conditions. • Effects are higher among children and the elderly. • Effects increase non-linearly with air pollution levels. • There are negative externalities related to deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. In this paper we assess the effects of fire-related air pollution on population health in the Brazilian Amazon. Our empirical strategy is based on a municipality-by-month fixed effects model, coupled with an instrumental variables approach that explores wind direction and air pollution in surrounding areas in order to exogenously shift exposure to air pollution at the locality. We find that exposure to air pollution, measured by PM2.5 concentration levels, is robustly associated with an increase in hospital admissions for respiratory conditions. The effects are higher among children and the elderly, and increase non-linearly with pollution levels. Our benchmark estimates indicate that an increase of one standard deviation in PM2.5 is related to an increase of 1.5% of the monthly hospitalization rate for respiratory conditions. The latter estimate reaches 14% if monthly average PM2.5 crosses thresholds as high as 75 μ g/m3. We do not observe significant effects on hospitalization rates related to other health conditions nor on mortality rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the peculiarities of Brazilian Amazon, especially the access to information and communication technologies. Particularly, this work discusses the access of urban Amazon to the Internet and it proposes a review of the alleged isolation of the region, where the majority of the population is urban and the access of Internet is growing. It also denies the ideas that lead to the invisibility of the urban in opposite to the centrality of the environment when Amazon is the issue [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the causes of forgetfulness that has been a constant in the Colombian Amazon and the implications that it has had on the border and foreign policy in the country. It also argues that taking part of a group of global, regional and national transformations, ACTO has been revitalized, which can be the first step to expand the State's institutions on the Amazon territory, the starting point to taking advantage of its strategic potential, and to create synergies with other countries that are part of the Organization to confront a set of threats that defying the rainforest. In addition, the agency can be a vector of South American integration that eventually, could be quite receptive to leadership of Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often argued that various forms of illegality persist in the Brazilian Amazon because of weak frontier governance. However, very little is understood about how this governance can be strengthened in the context of social and spatial change in a way that will counter illegality. Drawing on the concept of heterotopias, as discussed by Michel Foucault, and the life history of an illegal logger in an agrarian reform settlement project in the state of Pará, this paper approaches frontier governance by conceptualising the 'settlement heterotopia' as a real, lived-in place in which the space that makes up various state and nonstate actors' sites of action interact and continually rearrange power relations. This rearrangement process may or may not work to legitimise illegality and, therefore, strengthening frontier governance involves a process by which collaborative power relations emerge and residents decide to work with the state instead of alongside illegality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the result of research based on the social conflict caused by the building of the hydroelectric plant of Belo Monte in the Xingu River (Pará State, eastern Amazonia) and the follow-up "Regional Sustainable Development Plan of the Xingu Region". It is part of a larger conceptual analytical framework that combines the principles of the sociological current of New institutionalism, with the theory of action by Jürgen Habermas. Based on the analysis of instrumental and strategic action of the political, social and economic players in this region, which has been characterized as peripheric, a series of variables are established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Brazilian production of bentonite is approximately 300,000t/year, with more than 88% of this production concentrated in small deposits located in the Paraíba state (northeast Brazil), which consequently are becoming exhausted. The objective of this paper is to present a new occurrence of bentonite from the eastern Amazon in northern Brazil, here referred to as Balsas bentonite. A selected sample of the material was characterized by XRD, TG/DTA, ICP-OES, FTIR, SEM-EDS, N2 adsorption/desorption at 77K and CEC. The main constituent of the bulk sample is montmorillonite. Kaolinite is completely absent, in contrast to some bentonites found in the famous Paraíba state. The results obtained from the mineralogical and chemical characterization confirm that this material, in comparison to some reference bentonites from the Clay Mineral Society Source Clays, has promise as an engineering material, indicating its possible use in various research and industrial applications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Th is paper presents a study on the potential of the Amazon to the development of dermocosmetics, using regional materials. Th e study conducts a survey of local capacity to produce knowledge and develop technologies appropriate to the chains andiroba, copaiba and brazilian nuts. Such supply chains are the most prevalent and established in the region, representing an important source of income for much of the regional communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current transnational networks of non-governmental organizations and social movements have challenged nation-states' policy designs. Their increasing political legitimacy, however, is matched by cultural friction and misunderstandings among their members and stakeholders. This paper argues that anthropological insights may provide maps that can help shape advocacy networks' guidelines for action. Just as social analysts of past centuries provided the language and imagined forms of social organization from systematic examinations of events, anthropologists can help explain current relations and processes within fluid structures in order to improve their practices and results. This idea is illustrated by the examination of a single socio-environmental advocacy network in the Brazilian Amazon: 'Y Ikatu Xingu. This network was chosen because it brings together stakeholders from contrasting backgrounds, thus highlighting its intercultural challenges. Some members of the convening NGOs were anthropologists, whose work is focused on helping bridge understandings of environment and coexistence. The network was therefore strongly influenced by anthropological insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper examines the interactions between state-led land reform, agrarian structures, and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Land reform tends to promote land redistribution through regularization of smallholder land invasions of large-scale landholdings, and by redistribution of public lands to smallholders in existing colonization frontiers. The implications of state-led land reform on deforestation are heterogeneous. I argue that impacts of agrarian reform are strongly related to the pre-existing social and economic configuration of the frontiers where it takes place. While it leads to lower rates of deforestation in landscapes dominated by smallholders with diversified land use, its impact on forest conversion is higher in landscapes where extensive land use, mainly prompted by large-scale cattle ranching, tends to dominate. I provide an assessment for the whole Brazilian Amazon, and examine two research sites in the state of Pará, namely Uruará and Redenção. The study is based on informant interviews, secondary information, agricultural census data, and remote sensing data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

An accurate estimate of carbon fluxes associated with tropical deforestation from the last two decades is needed to balance the global carbon budget. Several studies have already estimated carbon emissions from tropical deforestation, but the estimates vary greatly and are difficult to compare due to differences in data sources, assumptions, and methodologies. In this paper, we review the different estimates and datasets, and the various challenges associated with comparing them and with accurately estimating carbon emissions from deforestation. We performed a simulation study over legal Amazonia to illustrate some of these major issues. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of considering land-cover dynamics following deforestation, including the fluxes from reclearing of secondary vegetation, the decay of product and slash pools, and the fluxes from regrowing forest. It also suggests that accurate carbon-flux estimates will need to consider historical land-cover changes for at least the previous 20 years. However, this result is highly sensitive to estimates of the partitioning of cleared carbon into instantaneous burning vs. Long-timescale slash pools. We also show that carbon flux estimates based on ‘committed flux’ calculations, as used by a few studies, are not comparable with the ‘annual balance’ calculation method used by other studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research featuring demographic factors in environmental change has focused on processes operating at the level of national or global populations. This paper focuses on household-level demographic life cycles among colonists in the Amazon, and evaluates the impacts on land use allocation. The analysis goes beyond prior research by including a broader suite of demographic variables, and by simultaneously assessing their impacts on multiple land uses with different economic and ecological implications. We estimate a system of structural equations that accounts for endogeneity among land uses, and the findings indicate stronger demographic effects than previous work. These findings bear implications for modeling land use, and the place of demography in environmental research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present the historical, social, political and economical context in which the Amazon basin is to be considered, from an andean perspective. In the introduction we review a few basic facts about the geografic and demografic state of the region. Then we present the main steps of the human ocupation of the amazon area, from the Conquest to the irruption of capitalism. The second part is dedicated to the internationalization of the amazon agenda, especially throughout the conservation of the environment and the cooperation. We conclude with a short comment on the role of social actors in the region's future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Terra Legal had no overall impact on deforestation as of 2012. • Deforestation levels increased following Terra Legal in highly registered counties. • Spatial spillovers from Terra Legal were minimal in the short term. • Temporary crop cultivation decreased with greater registered area. • Investment loans increased in counties with more area registered by small and medium farms. This paper estimates the early impacts of Terra Legal , a large property rights reform, on deforestation and farming in the Brazilian Amazon. Twelve and a half million hectares, more than 2.5% of the Brazilian Amazon, have been registered under this program. The establishment of property rights may increase a farmer's incentive to invest in his land and expand his farm due to a lower risk of expropriation. On the other hand, the enforcement of conservation requirements may be easier when farmers have legal titles to their land. We use county level data from 2007 to 2012 on farm registrations, deforestation, crop choice and bovine management to test the impact of the Terra Legal land reform. While we find no overall impact of the program on deforestation during the period in our sample, we do show that there is substantial heterogeneity in impacts across counties. Counties with the largest area registered do have an increase in the level of area deforested, but they also have a decrease in the rate of deforestation. We investigate the extent to which changes in deforestation are related to the amount of registration that occurs among small, medium and large farms, and find limited support for less deforestation among counties with more area registered by small farms; more area registered by large farms is associated with a higher level of deforestation, but a decreased deforestation rate. Our results suggest that land tenure reform can create incentives to decelerate deforestation. Farm size has a strong impact on the farm management changes generated by improved property rights; coupling land tenure reforms with incentives to intensify production rather than expand could lead to reduced deforestation, particularly among small farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]