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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that influence the facilities management (FM) in construction sites in the Brazilian Amazon. Design/methodology/approach: The study used structured questionnaires, with the participation of 136 facilities professionals in construction sites in the Brazilian Amazon. These sites were selected with help of 17 facilities managers. The survey achieved a total response rate of 76.5 per cent. The factorial analysis was performed after checking the adequacy of the sample to the technique. The results allowed the continuation of data processing and the use of exploratory factorial analysis to summarize the variables and identify the influencing factors. Findings: The results indicated five factors that influence the FM on construction sites in the Brazilian Amazon, namely: negotiation with local entities; weather; local suppliers; manpower; and logistical infrastructure. With the proper understanding of these factors, facilities professionals could plan actions to minimize negative impacts over the FM on construction sites. Research limitations/implications: The influence of factors on FM was studied from the professionals' viewpoint. It is possible that there are other perspectives or other influencing factors. However, this work is limited to the analysis of the variables that make up the five dimensions presented. Practical implications: Organizations and FM professionals might be interested in the results of this research to enhance the FM performance on the construction sites existed and to plan the implementation of the FM on upcoming construction sites. Originality/value: This paper is the first large research about FM in construction sites conducted in the Brazilian Amazon and serve as a basis to other research works that promote the development of FM in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Monitoring coherently the Amazon Water Cycle (WC) using satellite observations is crucial for climate and water resources studies. The SAtellite Water Cycle (SAWC) integration methodology is introduced to optimize the satellite datasets. In this paper, the WC budget is balanced simultaneously over 10 sub‐basins by constraining the horizontal water exchanges between them. Compared to an actual assimilation analysis, SAWC benefits from the use of water storage observations from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment. SAWC corrects the satellite evapotranspiration datasets that tend to under‐estimate the water‐limited evaporation over the central Amazon and to over‐estimate the energy‐limited evaporation over the northern Amazon. The SAWC precipitation estimates are evaluated against gauge measurements and show good overall results with a correlation varying from 0.94 to 0.99 and root‐mean‐square deviation between 16 and 41 mm/month (≃10% of precipitation estimate). Plain Language Summary: The Amazon basin is the major hydrological basin on Earth, but quantifying its various water stocks and fluxes by using satellite observation remains a true challenge. In order to obtain a better description of the water cycle, we propose here a new methodology that optimizes all the available satellite estimations. Compared to previous efforts, river discharge measurements are used to constrain the horizontal water exchanges among the sub‐basins. This methodology allows obtaining a more accurate and coherent quantification of the water cycle, at the regional scale. The optimized rainfall estimates show improvement compared to original datasets when evaluated against gauge measurements. The methodology corrects also the evapotranspiration season estimate that tends to under‐estimate the water‐limited evaporation over the central Amazon and to over‐estimate the energy‐limited evaporation over the northern Amazon. Key Points: A satellite‐data integration technique can exploit the water budget closure and water exchange between the sub‐basinsSatellite‐based precipitation data set is improved compared to in situ gaugesThe evapotranspiration estimates are improved by stressing the water or energy limitation regime over the amazon [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population growth and rising incomes have led to increasing global demand for meat products. Meeting this demand without converting remaining natural ecosystems or further degrading ecosystems is one of the largest global sustainability challenges. A critical step to overcoming this challenge is to increase the productivity of livestock grazing systems, which occupy the largest land area of any type of agriculture globally. Integrated crop−livestock systems (iCL), which re-couple crop and livestock production at the farm scale, have been considered a promising strategy to tackle this challenge by restoring degraded pasturelands and providing supplemental nutrition to livestock. However, few studies have analyzed the economic viability of such systems, especially in Brazil, an important player in global food systems. This paper presents an economic analysis of iCL in Mato Grosso, Brazil, the largest grain and beef producer in the country, which spans the ecologically diverse Amazon, Cerrado and Pantanal biomes. We compare the economic performance of an integrated soybean/corn and beef cattle system to a continuous crop (soybean/corn) system and a continuous livestock (beef cattle) production system from 2005 to 2012. We use empirical case study data to characterize a 'typical' farm for each production system within the study region. We find that the integrated crop−livestock system has a higher annual net present value (NPV) per hectare (ha) than continuous cropping or livestock under a range of discount rates. However, under a scenario of substantially higher crop prices, the continuous cropping outperforms iCL. While iCL is not feasible in all regions of the Amazon and Cerrado, our results indicate that in places where the biophysical and market conditions are suitable for production, it could be a highly profitable way to intensify cattle production and potentially spare land for other uses, including conservation. Nevertheless, additional credit and technical support may be needed to overcome high upfront costs and informational barriers to increase iCL areas as a sustainable development strategy for agriculture in the Amazon and Cerrado regions. [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]

Copyright of Topoi: Revista de História is the property of TOPOI: Revista de Historia, Programa de Pos-graduacao em Historia Social da UFRJ and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Colombia Internacional is the property of Universidad de los Andes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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]

Copyright of Journal of Latin American Studies is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper compares the financial attractiveness of forest and agroforestry plantations promoted by external organizations with tree growing practices of Amazonian smallholders. Based on 80 case studies and interviews with 112 forestry professionals from Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, the paper characterizes the economic, environmental and structural implications, and identifies the respective financial costs and benefits. Six case studies provided data for in-depth financial analyses. The results showed that the expectations of externally promoted smallholder tree and agroforestry plantations were not met. Despite significant inputs, smallholders generated at best annual net incomes of US$200-$1,000 per ha from NTFP plantations, and up to US$800-$1,000 from timber plantations in the year of harvest. This corresponded to around one-third of the initially expected returns. Overall, only around 1% of the smallholders participating in such initiatives managed to produce and commercialize any plantation products. Smallholders' practices of complementary tree growing in conjunction with agriculture and managing natural regeneration of timber and NTFP products were often underestimated by professionals. They required low input, didn't rely on external support, were highly flexible in risky environments, and some presented financial returns comparable to some well functioning plantations. [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]

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]

The Brazilian Amazon forest and cerrado savanna encompasses a region of enormous ecological, climatic, and land-use variation. Satellite remote sensing is the only tractable means to measure the biophysical attributes of vegetation throughout this region, but coarse-resolution sensors cannot resolve the details of forest structure and land-cover change deemed critical to many land-use, ecological, and conservation-oriented studies. The Carnegie Landsat Analysis System (CLAS) was developed for studies of forest and savanna structural attributes using widely available Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) satellite data and advanced methods in automated spectral mixture analysis. The methodology of the CLAS approach is presented along with a study of its sensitivity to atmospheric correction errors. CLAS is then applied to a mosaic of Landsat images spanning the years 1999–2001 as a proof of concept and capability for large-scale, very high resolution mapping of the Amazon and bordering cerrado savanna. A total of 197 images were analyzed for fractional photosynthetic vegetation (PV), nonphotosynthetic vegetation (NPV), and bare substrate covers using a probabilistic spectral mixture model. Results from areas without significant land use, clouds, cloud shadows, and water bodies were compiled by the Brazilian state and vegetation class to understand the baseline structural typology of forests and savannas using this new system. Conversion of the satellite-derived PV data to woody canopy gap fraction was made to highlight major differences by vegetation and ecosystem classes. The results indicate important differences in fractional photosynthetic cover and canopy gap fraction that can now be accounted for in future studies of land-cover change, ecological variability, and biogeochemical processes across the Amazon and bordering cerrado regions of Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurocysticercosis, a parasitic infection of the central nervous system (CNS), is a significant public health issue globally, including in Brazil. This article presents a case report of a 44-year-old male patient residing in the rural area of Roraima, the northernmost region of Brazil within the Amazon Forest. The patient, with chronic HIV infection, acquired the Taenia solium helminth, resulting in neurocysticercosis development. Remarkably, the diagnosis of neurocysticercosis was not initially apparent but emerged through meticulous analysis following a motorcycle accident. The absence of seizures, a common clinical manifestation, complicated the diagnostic process, making it an uncommon case of NCC, which may be related to co-infection. As the patient's condition progressed, multiple complications arose, requiring additional medical attention and interventions. This case underscores the immense challenges faced by healthcare teams in managing neurocysticercosis effectively. It emphasizes the critical need for a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to provide optimal care for such complex cases. The study's findings underscore the importance of raising awareness and implementing improved strategies for tackling neurocysticercosis, particularly in regions where it remains a prevalent concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuing decline in the global extent of tropical forests, agriculture-dominated landscapes now cover approximately 50 % of the tropical biome. In this context, our ability to understand and influence biodiversity and carbon sequestration in the tropics depends in large part on our understanding of actively managed landscapes. Approximately two-third of deforested lands become pasture in the Neotropics, and therefore, significant changes in their structure represent a potentially important development in terms of carbon sequestration and biodiversity, especially as ecosystem service payment schemes such as REDD+ emerge. The spontaneous emergence of silvo-pastoral landscapes, or pastures with trees, in formerly treeless pastures in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon represents just this kind of potentially significant shift in the structure of landscapes. In this paper, we try to explain this change in pastoral landscapes. Field surveys indicate variable densities of trees in pastures, with stem densities ranging from 30 to 400 per hectare. Analyses of interviews with the heads of small cattle ranching enterprises suggest that cattle ranchers pursue an intentional management strategy of allowing trees to regrow in working pastures to an extent that is ecologically significant. These findings confirm that even cattle ranches, albeit small in scale, can simultaneously produce food and provide important ecosystem services like carbon sequestration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In October 2013, a group of indigenous women from the southeastern Ecuadorian Amazon started the “March of Life”. This 250-km long march – organized and led entirely by female representatives from the Achuar, Shuar, Zapara, Kichwa, Shiwiar, Andoa, and Waorani indigenous organizations – proceeded from the Amazonian city of Puyo to the capital city of Quito and was a response to the 11th oil licensing round in their territories. After this symbolic and arduous march, Amazonian women have continued to organize as a network and as active members of their indigenous organizations against renewed attempts by the government of licensing their territories to extractive companies, making their voices heard in the national media and their proposals more visible within the broader spectrum of environmental, anti-extractive and popular feminist struggles in Ecuador. This is the case of their proposal to declare the Amazon a “Living Forest,” publicly presented to the Ecuadorian National Assembly in 2013. Departing from my colabor ethnography with five leaders and members from this network – Elvia Dagua, Zoila Castillo, Rosa Gualinga, Nancy Santi, and Salomé Aranda –, and decolonial, feminist and Latin American indigenous thought, this paper reflects about the role of Amazonian women’s concrete practices that make the Amazon a “living forest” and that sustain their territorial struggle. Practices like cultivating the land, weaving clay pottery, sharing dreams in the mornings, or singing “with a purpose” are practices that not only build affective relations between the human and non-human, but that constantly recognize, relate to and even make the forest into a living entity. At the same time, these practices of forest-making nurture Amazonian women’s organizational strategies – e.g. when they sing at meetings with representatives from the government – and political discourse when confronting the state and oil companies. With this analysis, I hope to shed light on how Amazonian women’s territorial struggle is decolonizing environmental imaginaries about the Amazon as an untouched territory to be preserved, makes evident the continuum between resistance strategies and the reproduction of human and non-human life in the rainforest, and is transforming the anti-extractive struggle at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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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]

Many different fields of knowledge approach social problems such as the overuse of resources necessary for human development and survival. Joining that enterprise, behavior analysts strive for a clear description of the contingencies that select problematic cultural practices or prevent the spread of solutional patterns of behavior. This description ought to encompass the reinforcement contingencies that operate not only at the ontogenetic level but also at the cultural level. For that enterprise, especially when one looks at the possible overuse of common pool resources, a dialogue with Elinor Ostrom's work is valuable. This article aims to describe and analyze the selection of different cultural practices in the case of the production of açaí berries in the Brazilian Amazon. In the past, caboclo communities in the Amazon region harvested and consumed the fruit in sustainable common pool management. The boom in the economy in the last 50 years has led to new practices. This paper argues that the profit of this market has selected new interlocked behavioral contingencies that may have different long-term natural effects, such as environmental erosion, and social costs, such as the exclusion of the traditional populations and the limiting of the low-income population's access to the product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current paper analyzes the southern frontier of the state of Pará and the northern territory of the state of Maranhão, Brazil, close to the river Turiaçu and assesses its importance for the displacement of people and goods during Portuguese colonial rule and in the post-1822 Independence years. The paper investigates the strategic and political relevance of the frontier for travel and transport, correspondence and transport of goods within the context of the Brazilian Indigenes, merchants and the Portuguese and Brazilian governments. The conflicts between inhabitants and settlers are highlighted in the essay. [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]

Abstract: The conventional understanding of environmental governance implicitly assumes a priori presence of citizen rationality that underpins constitution of civil society vis-à-vis state. This assumption tends to overlook the economic and ecological consequences of social interactions through which people with diverse forms of rationality gradually produce distinction between state and society and shape environmental governance as an embedded process. This paper presents a case study of spontaneous settlers called posseiros in the south-east of the state of Pará in the Brazilian Amazon and examines ways that their social interactions lead to the so-called emancipation movements for municipal making on the agrarian frontier and open civic places in which environmental governance is negotiated. It pays particular attention to the role of religion, especially the Pentecostal Church of Assembly of God in relation to the traditional Catholic Church, in influencing the posseiros' ecological rationality and the articulation of emancipation movements and argues that the focus on religion sheds new light on the linkage between the environment, livelihoods and local governance. The paper concludes by discussing pragmatic implications of the case study for promoting sustainable rural development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Copyright of Papel Político is the property of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Cadernos de Finanças Públicas is the property of Escola de Administracao Fazendaria and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• 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]

Amazonia is one of the world's most vulnerable regions to climate change but few studies pinpointing priority areas for local adaptation programmes exist. This paper aims to identify socio-climatic hotspots among the 515 municipalities that compose the Brazilian Amazon by using a three-step process. First, we identified the regional social hotspots, that is, municipalities that have currently low adaptive capacity, by calculating a composite infrastructure index based on the assessment of both current green and socioeconomic infrastructures. Second, we used a Regional Climate Change Index to identify the climate change hotspots, that is, those municipalities that have a high likelihood to experience future climate change risks. Third, we evaluated the geographic coincidence of social and climate change hotspots to identify the socio-climatic hotspots. We found that 117 municipalities are regional social hotspots and that 60 municipalities are regional climate change hotspots. Forty-six municipalities are considered as socio-climatic hotspots because they have very low to low composite infrastructure indices and very high climate risk indices. Local institutional capacity to integrate and execute national-level policies that enhance local adaptive capacity is a major constraint across the region. To face the challenges associated with climate change, municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon should embrace a more sustainable development model. Sustainable development, in the context of the Brazilian Amazon, implies conservation of the existing green infrastructure through the expansion of protected areas and indigenous lands, restoration of green infrastructure in areas of deficit, and substantial investments in urban socioeconomic infrastructures to foster a knowledge-based economy. Although local sustainable development and adaptation plans are essential across the entire region, the 46 municipalities identified in this study as regional socio-climatic hotspots could be prioritized for action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State-led agrarian reform (SLAR) settlements established in the Amazon in the 1970s led to environmental degradation and mixed socioeconomic outcomes. More recently, direct-action land reform (DALR) settlements have proliferated, which are leading to new forest clearing in the name of agrarian reform. The emergence of DALR begs questions about social and environmental outcomes in recent Amazon settlements. This paper compares DALR settlements in two different regions of the eastern Amazon: the South of Pará and the Transamazon. Analysis of household survey data shows that DALR settlements in the two study areas differ substantially in terms of their histories of formation and regional contexts. However, social and environmental outcomes do not always differ among the two study areas, which in turn resemble older SLAR settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postdevelopment theorists often try to read 'alternatives to development' in the actions of local social movements or non-governmental organizations. More recent studies of development, however, emphasize the imbrication of state agendas with those of civil society. In the context of a major regional integration initiative in South America, this essay argues for the need to move beyond postdevelopment. Launched in 2000, IIRSA, the Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America, calls for a massive expansion of the continent's transport, energy and telecommunications networks and as such has the potential to redefine both the ecological and political-economic landscapes of South America. In particular, IIRSA's Amazonian mega-projects have prompted outcries from environmentalists and indigenous peoples. In examining some of the salient methods activists are using to challenge IIRSA, this paper takes issue with postdevelopment and argues that activists are not rejecting elite projects, but instead are engaging them. Activists generate this space of engagement by invoking and problematizing the idea of active citizenship. The essay ends by exploring the implications of such a strategy, emphasizing an awareness of the entanglements between civil society and dominant institutions through a consideration of development, environment and citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sentiment analysis is a more popular area of highly active research in Automatic Language Processing. She assigns a negative or positive polarity to one or more entities using different natural language processing tools and also predicted high and low performance of various sentiment classifiers. Our approach focuses on the analysis of feelings resulting from reviews of products using original text search techniques. These reviews can be classified as having a positive or negative feeling based on certain aspects in relation to a query based on terms. In this paper, we chose to use two automatic learning methods for classification: Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Random Forest, and we introduce a novel hybrid approach to identify product reviews offered by Amazon. This is useful for consumers who want to research the sentiment of products before purchase, or companies that want to monitor the public sentiment of their brands. The results summarize that the proposed method outperforms these individual classifiers in this amazon dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

•The rich ecology of tropical forests is intimately tied to their moisture status. Multi-site syntheses can provide a macro-scale view of these linkages and their susceptibility to changing climates. Here, we report pan-tropical and regional-scale analyses of tree vulnerability to drought. •We assembled available data on tropical forest tree stem mortality before, during, and after recent drought events, from 119 monitoring plots in 10 countries concentrated in Amazonia and Borneo. •In most sites, larger trees are disproportionately at risk. At least within Amazonia, low wood density trees are also at greater risk of drought-associated mortality, independent of size. For comparable drought intensities, trees in Borneo are more vulnerable than trees in the Amazon. There is some evidence for lagged impacts of drought, with mortality rates remaining elevated 2 yr after the meteorological event is over. •These findings indicate that repeated droughts would shift the functional composition of tropical forests toward smaller, denser-wooded trees. At very high drought intensities, the linear relationship between tree mortality and moisture stress apparently breaks down, suggesting the existence of moisture stress thresholds beyond which some tropical forests would suffer catastrophic tree mortality. [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]

The Amazon rain forest constitutes one of the major global stocks of carbon. Recent studies, including the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and the Coupled Climate Carbon Cycle Model Intercomparison Project, have suggested that it may reduce in size and lose biomass during the twenty-first century through a savannization process. A better understanding of how this ecosystem structure, dynamics, and carbon balance may respond to future climate changes is needed. This article investigates how well a fully coupled atmosphere–biosphere model can reproduce vegetation structure and dynamics in Amazonia to the extent permitted by available data. The accurate representation of the coupled climate–biosphere dynamics requires the accurate representation of climate, net primary production (NPP), and its partition among the several carbon pool components. The simulated climate is validated against precipitation (within 5% of four datasets) and incident solar radiation (within 7% of observations). The authors also validate (i) simulated land cover, which reproduces well the observed patterns; (ii) NPP, within 5% of observations; and (iii) respiration rates, within 15% of observations. The performance of simulated variables that depend on carbon allocation, like NPP partitioning, leaf area index, and aboveground live biomass, although good on a regional mean, is significantly low when spatial patterns are considered. These errors may be attributed to fixed carbon allocation and residence time parameters assumed by the model. Carbon allocation apparently varies spatially, and to simulate this spatial variability is quite a challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper seeks to understand how the Brazilian Amazon, which many thought unsuitable for agricultural development, has yielded to a dynamic cattle economy in only a few decades. It does so by embedding the Thunian model of location rents within the regime of capital accumulation that has driven the Brazilian economy since the mid-20th century. The paper addresses policies that have created location rents in Amazônia, the effect of these rents on land managers, and the spatial implications of their behavior on forests. Thus, the paper connects macro-processes and structures to agents on the ground, in providing a political ecological explanation relevant to land change science. The policy discussion focuses on reductions in transportation costs, improvements in animal health, and monetary and trade reforms. To illustrate the impact of policy, the paper presents data on the geography of Amazonian herd expansion, on the growth of Amazonian exports, and on the profitability of the region’s cattle economy. It follows the empirical presentation with more abstract consideration of the spatial relations between cattle ranching and soy farming, and implications for deforestation. The paper concludes on a speculative note by considering the likelihood of forest transition in the region, given the transformation of Amazônia into a global resource frontier. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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]

As data sets of multiple types and scales proliferate, it will be increasingly important to be able to flexibly combine them in ways that retain relevant information. A case in point is Amazonia, a large, data-poor region where most whole-basin data sets are limited to understanding land cover interpreted through a variety of remote sensing techniques and sensors. A growing body of work, however, indicates that the future state of much of Amazonia depends on the land use to which converted areas are put, but land use in the tropics is difficult to assess from remotely sensed data alone. An earlier paper developed new snapshots of agricultural land use in this region using a statistical fusion of satellite data and agricultural census data, an underutilized ancillary data source available across Amazonia. The creation of these land-use maps, which have the spatial detail of a satellite image and the attribute information of an agricultural census, required the development of a new statistical technique for merging data sets at different scales and of fundamentally different data types. Here we describe and assess this nonlinear technique, which reinterprets existing land cover classifications by determining what categories are most highly related to the polygon land-use data across the study area. Although developed for this region, the technique appears to hold broad promise for the systematic fusion of multiple data sets that are closely related but of different origins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The Brazilian government annually assesses the extent of deforestation in the Legal Amazon for a variety of scientific and policy applications. Currently, the assessment requires the processing and storing of large volumes of Landsat satellite data. The potential for efficient, accurate, and less data-intensive assessment of annual deforestation using data from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) at 250-m resolution is evaluated. Landsat-derived deforestation estimates are compared to MODIS-derived estimates for six Landsat scenes with five change-detection algorithms and a variety of input data—Surface Reflectance (MOD09), Vegetation Indices (MOD13), fraction images derived from a linear mixing model, Vegetation Cover Conversion (MOD44A), and percent tree cover from the Vegetation Continuous Fields (MOD44B) product. Several algorithms generated consistently low commission errors (positive predictive value near 90%) and identified more than 80% of deforestation polygons larger than 3 ha. All methods accurately identified polygons larger than 20 ha. However, no method consistently detected a high percent of Landsat-derived deforestation area across all six scenes. Field validation in central Mato Grosso confirmed that all MODIS-derived deforestation clusters larger than three 250-m pixels were true deforestation. Application of this field-validated method to the state of Mato Grosso for 2001–04 highlighted a change in deforestation dynamics; the number of large clusters (>10 MODIS pixels) that were detected doubled, from 750 between August 2001 and August 2002 to over 1500 between August 2003 and August 2004. These analyses demonstrate that MODIS data are appropriate for rapid identification of the location of deforestation areas and trends in deforestation dynamics with greatly reduced storage and processing requirements compared to Landsat-derived assessments. However, the MODIS-based analyses evaluated in this study are not a replacement for high-resolution analyses that estimate the total area of deforestation and identify small clearings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brazilian Legal Amazon (BLA) is the largest administrative unit in Brazil. The region has undergone a series of territorial policies that have led to specific conditions of occupation of the land and particular urban environments. This plurality expresses specific physical relations with the environment and infrastructure, which require innovative methods for detecting and profiling human settlements in this region. The aim of this work is to demonstrate how angular composites of nighttime lights can be associated with specific profiles of urban infrastructure, sociodemographic parameters, and mining sites present in the BLA. We make use of sets of yearly VNP46A4 angular composites specifically associated with the narrowest ranges of observations across the year, i.e., observations right below the sensor's pathway (near-nadir range) and observations in between the oblique range (off-nadir), to identify urban typologies that expose the presence of structures such as vertical buildings, industrial sites, and areas with different income levels. Through a non-parametric evaluation of the simple difference in radiance values ranging from 2012 to 2021, followed by an ordinary least squares regression (OLS), we find that off-nadir values are persistently higher than near-nadir values except in areas where obstructing structures and particular anisotropic characteristics are present, generally changing trends of the so-called angular effect. We advocate that relational metrics can be extracted from the angular annual composites to provide additional information on the current urban structural state. By calculating the simple difference (DIF), the relative difference (REL), and the residual values of the linear regression formula estimated for the off-nadir and near-nadir composites (RES), it is possible to differentiate urban environments by their physical aspects, such as high-mid income areas, low-income settlements with different levels of density, industrial sites, and verticalized areas. Moreover, pixels that were exclusively found in one of the angular composites could be spatially associated with phenomena such as the overglow effect for the exclusive off-nadir samples and with the wetlands of the northwest portion of the Amazon Forest for the near-nadir samples. This work deepens our current understanding of how to optimize the use of the VNP46A4 angular series for monitoring human activities in the Amazon biome and provides further directions on research possibilities concerning nighttime light angular composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Ambiente & Sociedade is the property of Nepam Unicamp and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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]

The management and governance of shared stocks have long been identified as a challenge to achieve long-term sustainability in fisheries. This is the situation of fisheries in the Amazon basin, a region shared by nine countries. This paper provides an overview of the social-ecological outcomes and management implications of sharing fish stocks among countries with different public policies, taking the valuable Amazonian ornamental silver arawana ( Osteoglossum bicirrhosum ) trade as a case study. Specifically, it (i) presents and discusses the policies of Colombia, Peru and Brazil for the silver arawana fishery, and how these are conducive for the successful management of this shared transboundary fishery; and (ii) analyzes the market for the ornamental silver arawana and how it affects the ability to sustainably manage the fishery. The interplay between the multiple environmental, economic and social dimensions involved in the ornamental silver arawana fishery affects the sustainability of this species even in Brazil, where this fishing is forbidden but still illegally caught by Colombians and Peruvians. Among the factors that make fisheries policies inefficient in this region are: (i) incongruent policies between the countries and institutions with low organizational capacity to accomplish the established policies; (ii) environmental heterogeneity of Amazonian aquatic systems, which requires local and adaptive measures; and (iii) complex socio-economic relationships in the live-fish trade business. Legally binding efforts to reduce problems derived from shared fish stocks are an urgent need and should be addressed by the multilateral organizations created for the Amazonian sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change threatens many native species from the Amazon Forest. Among the endangered species is the Açaí (Euterpe oleracea), which is a species with great national and international interest, due to the nutritional benefits and medicinal properties of its fruits. However, there is still no information on the ecophysiological responses of Açaí to climate change. Thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of increased temperature and CO2 concentration change on the ecophysiology of Açaí seedlings. To do so, Açaí seedlings were subjected, for 90 days, to three different climatic scenarios: current Amazon; RCP4.5 (current average temperature in the Amazon + 2.5 °C and 538 ppm of carbon dioxide concentration i.e. CO2); and RCP8.5 (+ 4.5 °C and 936 ppm of CO2 concentration). In addition, two irrigation levels were applied within each climatic scenario: seedlings maintained at 90% (not stressed) and 40% (stressed) of the water holding capacity of the substrate. Gas exchange, water status, fluorescence parameters, enzymatic antioxidants activity and dry matter production were evaluated. High CO2 concentration enhanced Açaí gas exchange (increasing CO2 assimilation), regardless of substrate water availability and temperature. However, high temperature and high vapor-pressure deficit reduced quantum yield and increased the minimum fluorescence and enzymatic antioxidants activity. With that, Açaí seedlings did not convert the additional assimilated carbon (due to higher CO2 concentration) into biomass, showing decreased total dry mass accumulation for RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 climate scenarios. Our results indicated that the positive impacts of increased CO2 concentration to gas exchange may not offset the negative impacts of increased air temperature and VPD to Açaí growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

For over a century it has been believed that Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates set out for the Amazon in 1848 with the aim of 'solving the problem of the origin of species'. Yet this enticing story is based on only one sentence. Bates claimed in the preface to his 1863 book that Wallace stated this was the aim of their expedition in an 1847 letter. Bates gave a quotation from the letter. But Wallace himself never endorsed or repeated this story. Many writers have acknowledged that this letter still survives. Yet the wording is different from that quoted by Bates and the letter says nothing of an expedition. It is argued that the sentence given by Bates is not a genuine quotation from this or any other Wallace letter but was modified by Bates to promote his own reputation. More significantly, this leads to the conclusion that there was a very sudden and dramatic shift in the way species were thought of and discussed after Darwin's Origin of species appeared. Something called 'the problem of the origin of species' (and similar variants) never occurred before Darwin's book but exploded in frequency immediately after it. A profound change in how species origins were discussed happened which no one seemed to notice. [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]