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Land Use and Social Change in the Brazilian Amazon (1992 – 2002)

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Land Use and Social Change in the Brazilian Amazon (1992 – 2002) The Post-frontier: Land use and social change in the Brazilian Amazon (1992 – 2002) Percy Manuel Summers Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Environmental Design and Planning John O. Browder, Chair James R. Bohland A.L. “Tom” Hammett Alnoor Ebrahim Randolph H. Wynne 12th of May of 2008 Blacksburg, Virginia Keywords: agricultural frontier, Amazonia, deforestation, land use and land cover change, household life cycle, Rondônia Dedicated to my nieces Valentina Anouk and Gaelle Luciana, both born during the last stages of the writing of this dissertation, in the hope that they find as much passion and inspiration in life to guide them through the fulfillment of their own dreams as I do with mine… and to my grandfather Manuel Sarria and grandmother Consuelo Garcia, who passed away during my days in Blacksburg, from whom I learned to live life passionately and to follow my dreams… Acknowledgments This study could not have been possible without the help and support of many friends, colleagues and professors. I especially would like to thank Dr. John O. Browder for being a true mentor and friend who supported me since the first day I arrived and throughout my years in Blacksburg. I am extremely grateful for the opportunities he has given me to participate in his ongoing research and for being such an inspiration as a scholar. I am very thankful to the members of my committee: Dr. A.L. “Tom” Hammett, Dr. James Bohland, Dr. Alnoor Ebrahim and Dr. Randy Wynne, for the guidance and advice during the different phases of the dissertation. I would also like to thank Dr. Roberto Samanez Mercado for encouraging and guiding me into the Ph.D. I gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation and the Urban Design and Planning Department (School of Public and International Affairs) for funding support that allowed me to complete my graduate studies at the Environmental Design and Planning Doctoral Program. I also want to thank Chris Mattsson-Coon and Krystal Wright for their help in keeping me in track with the program even at a distance and for getting me through the last stages of my thesis smoothly. Special thanks to Freda Wolf who helped me extensively with editing the final draft of the dissertation. Other researchers and scholars of Amazonia helped me during different phases of this research, inspiring long conversations about the past and future of Amazonia. Marcos Pedlowski from the Northern Fluminense State University, Eraldo Matricardi in Porto Velho, Robert “Bob” Walker from Michigan State University, Flavio Luizão, Niro Higuchi, and Philip Fearnside at the National Institute for Research in Amazonia (INPA), Sergio Rivero at the Federal University of Rondônia (UNIR), Irving Foster Brown and Marco Amaro in Rio Branco , Merle Faminow from the International Development Research Center (IDRC) of Canada, Daniel Nepstad and Toby McGrath from Woods Hole Research Center and the National Institute of Amazonian Studies (IPAM), Richard “Dick” Bilsborrow and his graduate students welcomed me at their center for population studies in Chapel Hill (UNC) and made me feel at home with my research, Charles Wood and Marianne Schmink gave me plenty of sound advice during my different visits to Gainesville. Finally, my friends at the Instituto del Bien Comun (IBC), especially Richard “Dick” Smith who has always supported my ideals and studies. The Rondônian research group made up of John Browder and Randy Wynne students helped a lot in organizing the Rondônia data set and in analyzing the data. Special thanks to Katie Joseph, Nancy Becerra-Cordoba and Ana Abad. I also want to thank all the friends I made at Virginia Tech, especially my cohort at the EDP program; Maria Adames, Moonsun, Apichoke, Giselle, Kyle, Ceylan, Rachel Christensen, Will Butler, Bernice, Sarah and everybody else at the program who made it such an enjoyable place to be at. I would like to especially thank Ramya Ramanath and Joao Mil-Homens who read many early versions of my thesis and for their special friendship. Special thanks to all who made up the EDP study group which was very helpful in getting me through my preliminary exams and my research proposal. Special iii thanks to Lauren Baker on the last haul of my Ph.D. thesis for all the revisions and encouragement. My housemates, Matt Johnson, Rusell James, Nicholas Kiersey, Jake Grear and Lally made my stay at Blacksburg some of the best years ever. We miss the old green house at Clay Circle. Other students focusing on environmental and social problems in the Amazon have become an important support group throughout these years even at a distance. I thank Renzo Piana, Carlos Soria, Diego Soria, Marne Suarez, Varinia Phumpiu, Zoila Cruz, Augusto Mulanovich, Jaime Semizo, Herman Burger, Angelica Almeyda, Danny Pinedo, Claudio Schneider, Rafael Rojas, Morgan Schmidt, Aili Pyhala, Jerry Mueller, Jomber Chota, Pedro Santos, Sandra Tapia, Akira Tanaka, Carlos Durigan, Selvino Neckel de Oliveira and many more that stay loyal to our ideals for a better world. Rose Gannon at “Livraria da Rose” always welcomed me with the biggest smile ever and was always very helpful during my stays in Porto Velho. I also want to thank my Brazilian friends who collected the field data; Eliane Siqueira Pedlowski, Crisanto Lopes de Oliveira, Keila Souza Aires, Ivoni Holz Seidel, Galvanda Queiroz Galvan, Leonardo de Souza Cavadas, Miguel Raul Mazissa Zinga and Raimundo Cajueiro. Finally I would like to thank my parents and family for all their love and understanding and for always encouraging me to keep going despite all the difficulties. iv THE POST-FRONTIER: LAND USE AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON (1992 – 2002) Percy Manuel Summers ABSTRACT Deforestation of tropical forests is one of the most pressing environmental problems of the twenty-first century, leading to the loss of environmental services such as climate regulation and biodiversity. The expansion of the agricultural frontier by small landholder farmers continues to be one of the major drivers of land use change in the Amazon region. Much of the recent research in the Brazilian Amazon has been focused on modeling their behavior in order to prescribe policies that can curb current deforestation rates and promote more sustainable land use practices. The availability of more sophisticated remote sensing and economic modeling tools has led to the proliferation of agricultural household level models that attempt to explain land use change processes at the farm level. This dissertation tests the household life cycle theory in one of the oldest colonization fronts in the Brazilian Amazon: Rondônia, now a post- frontier. The study examines household and farm level changes over time for specific aspects of the frontier process that can be tested using the household life cycle theory. This study introduces important additions to the life cycle theory in order to consider the more dynamic and complex set of factors that characterize modern frontier processes. Specifically the study examines: (1) property fragmentation and expansion processes, (2) property ownership, turnover and change, and (3) land use change processes at the property level. These are linked to changes in the social and economic features of the smallholder farmer as it moves along its life cycle. The central hypothesis is that these changes in property and land use dynamics can be explained by the corresponding changes in the life cycle of the household as the frontier evolves over time into a post- frontier. It was found that the household life cycle theory did not adequately explain land use change processes over time. As the frontier evolved into the modern post-frontier, the labor and drudgery constraints associated with the initial frontier processes, as exemplified in the household life cycle theory, became less relevant. The Sauerian concept of cultural successions and the concept of scale from hierarchical ecology are used in order to explain the apparent inconsistencies found between the household life cycle theory and land use change processes over time and at different scales of analysis. The household life cycle theory is a useful theoretical framework from which to examine the effects of household level factors on land use; however, this must be embedded within concepts of time and scale that determine their differentiated impact and behavior. v Existing plans to expand road infrastructure into the Amazon region will open-up previously inaccessible rainforest regions to agricultural frontier expansion at a scale unprecedented since the mid-eighties. Findings from this study reveal that policies based on household life cycle postulates will have limited impacts in reducing deforestation rates and promoting sustainable land use practices. Appropriate accounting of the social and environmental costs of future infrastructure development projects should consider associated frontier agricultural expansion costs to discourage further deforestation. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................ v TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................. vii LIST OF TABLES.............................................................................................................. x LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................
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