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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]

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]

• 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]

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]

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]

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

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]