Brazilian Amazonia and the Extractive Reserve Chico Mendes
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Property Rights and the Environment at the Local and Global Levels: Brazilian Amazonia and the Extractive Reserve Chico Mendes Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) by Catarina Araya Santos Cardoso London School of Economics and Political Science 1999 UMI Number: U615436 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615436 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 T h£ s £ S F 769/ "7 o i\-(yi(o A b s tr a c t There has been a tendency in research on common property to neglect the influence that national and international developments might have in resource conservation. The environmental literature, on the other hand, suggests that the creation of extractive reserves in Brazilian Amazonia in 1990 and thus the recognition of the rubber tappers’ common property rights to their forests have been influenced by such developments. Extractive reserves have also been considered one of the most important initiatives of the Brazilian government to address the problem of deforestation in Amazonia. Attempts at examining their capacity to ensure resource conservation through the theory on common property have been, however, relatively scarce. This thesis thus examines extractive reserves using the theory of common property as a theoretical framework and includes in the analysis a wider range of factors than those usually considered in the existing literature on common property regimes. The thesis reviews the evolution of national and international developments in relation to Amazonia during the 1980s and, against this background, it examines the process that led to the establishment of extractive reserves. The thesis then proceeds to explore the property rights institutions of the Chico Mendes drawing on the evidence collected through semi-structured interviews with the reserve inhabitants. The research conducted identifies local, national and international factors which have influenced the capacity of the rubber tappers to ensure the sustainable use of their resources before and after the creation of extractive reserves. The evidence and analysis presented suggests that the capacity of the Chico Mendes Reserve to promote the sustainable use of the forest is limited. There are indications, however, that the reserve inhabitants could develop mechanisms to conserve their resources if external support continues but, at the same time, does not hinder their autonomy and interest in managing the forest. The thesis concludes by suggesting that developments in the national and international arenas can play a crucial role in relation to common property institutions. 2 Acknowledgements During die researching and writing of this diesis many people have given me support and advice. I would like to start by thanking my main supervisor, Dr. Yvonne Rydin for her continuous and warm encouragement and for leaving me sufficient freedom to develop my own ideas. I also owe many thanks to my second supervisor, Dr. Anthony Hall, for his comments on my work and for providing important contacts in Brazil. Professor Judith Rees’ comments on the semi-final version the thesis were particularly valuable and I thank her warmly. In Brazil, I am indebted to many people whose help was invaluable for the field research. Many offered me accommodation, provided me with free access to computer facilities, crucial contacts for my research and treated me as a close friend. In particular, I would like to express my gratitude to Tony Waugh, Eleanora Dobin and her family, Ana Elisa and Ze, Ana’s sisters Glaucia, Regina and Joynes, and their family, Manoel and Nelia, Dna Elais, Julia Feitosa, Carlos Carvalhas, Dau, Pingo and his family, in particular Haylen, Branca, Lurdes, Haila and Charly, and Jose from colocagao Cumaru on seringal Icuria. I would also like to thank Dr. Reginaldo Fernando Castela, from the Federal University of Acre and Dr. Donald Sawyer and Bruno Panoccheschi of the ISPN (Instituto Sociedade, Populagao e Natureza). Apart from logistic support they also supplied important contacts. Special thanks go to all the policy-makers and rubber tappers I interviewed and, in particular, to those extractivists who received me in their houses. Thanks to the help of so many people, I managed to collect a substantial amount of information during the fieldwork, substantial enough to need three years to analyse, process and drastically edit. During this period, the continuous support of some friends was particularly appreciated. The frank and most helpful comments of Dr. Mark Pennington were crucial on several occasions. The fact that he twice read my diesis from cover to cover is something that can never be thanked enough. The daily emails of Eleanor O’Gorman were a permanent source of amusement and encouragement. Catarina Viana, Santana, Ana Roquette, Ana Cordeiro, Hans Stolum, Angela and Fernando Lacerda Nobre, Iris Hauswirth, Olimpio Barbanti, Manuel and Enaile, and the late Dra. Zaluar offered much appreciated moral and logistic support. Furthermore, thanks are due to JNICT, Junta Nacional de Investigagao Cientifica e Tecnologica, whose financial support made this work possible. For die fifth and last year of die writing up, I am grateful for the grants from the LSE, the British Federation of Women Graduates and Fundagao Calouste Gulbenkian. Finally, I owe special thanks to Holger who patiently listened to endless monologues about rubber tappers, two of his less favourite topics. This thesis is dedicated to my mother, my father and my brother Alvaro. 3 Table of Contents Abstract. ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements......................................................................................................................3 Table o f Contents........................................................................................................................4 List o f Tables...............................................................................................................................7 List o f Figures, Maps and Box................................................................................ 8 Abbreviations............................................................................................................................. 9 Chapter I INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................ 12 1.1 The focus and objectives of the Thesis................ 12 1.2 Thesis structure.................................................................................................................15 1.3 Fieldwork methodology.................................................................................................... 17 The Extractive Reserve Chico Mendes and interviews with rubber tappers 19 Interviews with policy-makers......................................................................................20 Analysis o f interviews and methodological limitations.............................................21 Chapter II ‘Common Property ’- The conceptual framework ...............................................23 Introduction.............................................................................................................................. 22 2.1 Common pool resources.................................................................................... 23 2.2 The ‘tragedy of the commons’, state control and private property............................... 26 2.3 Common property regimes............................................................................................... 31 2.4 Robust common property regimes................................................................................... 37 2.5 The development of robust common property regimes.................................................. 43 2.6 The external context.......................................................................................................... 49 2.7 Conclusion..........................................................................................................................59 Chapter III Brazilian A m azonia ..........................................................................................................62 Introduction...............................................................................................................................62 3.1 Deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia...............................................................................63 3.2 Impacts of deforestation....................................................................................................66 3.3 Causes of deforestation.....................................................................................................71 Government policies and (lack of) property .....................................................rights 71 International actors.......................................................................................................77