Fabio de Castro

Fisheries and the Evolution of Resource Management on the Lower Amazon Floodplain

Traditionally, the ribeirinhoeconomy has been based on strategies of multiple resource use including agriculture, fishing, and small-scale stock raising. In the last two decades though, ribeirinhostrategies of resource management have undergone major changes due to the decline of jute production (the principal cash crop), and the intensification of the commercial fisheries. As a result of these trends, there has been a shift of ribeirinholabor from agriculture to commercial fishing. Today, the diversity which once characterized ribeirinhosubsistence strategies is disappearing, and fishing has become the primary economic activity for the great majority of varzeafamilies. As pressure on varzeafisheries has increased, ribeirinhocommunities have attempted to assert control over local varzealakes and exclude fishermen from outside the community. In a number of cases, ribeirinhocommunities have closed lakes to outsiders and established informal lake reserves under local community management. These lake reserves are a promising strategy for managing lake fisheries on a sustainable basis.

A dynamic model of household decision-making and parcel level landcover change in the eastern Amazon

The region around Altamira, Brazil, located in the Eastern Amazon, has experienced rapid landcover change since the initiation of government sponsored colonization projects associated with the construction of the Trans-Amazon Highway. The 30 years since colonization (1971) have been marked by a net loss of forest cover and an increase in the amount of cultivated/productive land, particularly for pasture and annual/perennial crop production. This research presents a parcel-level model of landcover change for smallholders in the Altamira study area. The utility of specific land-use activities is calculated to identify those land-uses that are most optimal at each time point, and labor is allocated to these activities based on the availability of household and wage labor. The model reports the proportion of the parcel in the following landcover classes at each time point using a 1-year interval: mature forest, secondary successional forest, perennial crops, annual crops and pasture. A graphical user interface is used for scenario testing, such as the impact of high/low (population) fertility, the increase of out-migration to urban areas, or changes in cattle and crop prices. The model shows a rapid reduction in the amount of mature forest in the 30 years following initial settlement, after which the parcel is composed of a mosaic of secondary succession, pasture and crops. The nature and rapidity of this landcover change is the function of a variety of household and external variables incorporated in the model. In particular, the model produces different landcover compositions as a function of demographic rates (fertility, mortality) and agricultural prices.

Radial variation in the wood specific gravity of Joannesia princeps: the roles of age and diameter

Two models are developed to illustrate how age or diameter may control the radial increases in wood specific gravity (SG), a feature common to lowland tropical trees. In the age-dependent model, trees of the same age produce new secondary xylem of the same SG regardless of their diameters, i.e., SG is dependent on age. In the radius-dependent model, trees of the same radius produce new secondary xylem of the same SG regardless of their ages. Then, predictions of the two models are tested on radial wood samples from the trunkwood of Joannesia princeps Vell., growing in a 17-year-old plantation in Espirito Santo, Brazil. For this cohort, tests of four predictions supported the age-dependent model over the radius-dependent model: final specific gravity was independent of radius (smaller trees did not have smaller final specific gravities), the slope of the radial increase in SG with tree radius was negatively dependent on tree radius (smaller trees had steeper slopes), the coefficient of variation (CV) of SG of the final wood was the same or less than the CV of SG of the initial wood, and the CV of SG of the final wood was much less than the CV of the tree radius. Thus, for plantation trees of the same age, the SG of wood produced is primarily a function of age, not radius of the tree. Forest trees show similar relationships but with the effects of age and radius confounded because tree ages are unknown.

Between the sea and the land: the livelihood of estuarine people in southeastern Brazil

The central focus of this study is to characterize and compare the livelihood strategies of two coastal communities from the estuarine region of Ribeira Valley (Sao Paulo State, Southeastern Brazil), analyzing the interplay among four economic activities: small-scale agriculture, fishing, tourism-related jobs, and extraction of non-timber vegetal resources. The local people of these communities are mostly Caicara, the native inhabitants of southeastern Brazilian coast, in an Atlantic forest area. The miscegenation of Amerindians, European colonizers, and African Brazilians gave rise to the Caicara people, whose subsistence was originally based on small-scale itinerant agriculture, small-scale fishery, and some extraction of forest products. Their livelihoods activities changed through time: agricultural practices were gradually abandoned, while fishing grew in importance. Recently, tourism-related jobs and the extraction of non-timber vegetal resources acquired a key role in the estuarine Caicara livelihood. After an historical overview, we focus our analysis on the local factors and external pressures affecting the combination of these activities.

Ecology of fishing on the Grande River (Brazil): technology and territorial rights

Abstract On the Grande River (Rio Grande, Brazil), fishermen from two communities use different fishing gear (cast nets, longlines, gillnets or fishing rods) in different seasons, marked by the river water level. This study is an ecological analysis of fishing strategies at Grande River, downstream of a hydroelectric plant. Procedures included interviews and systematic observations of fishing trips. Corimba (Prochilodus lineatus) is caught especially in the wet season (November–March), barbado (Pinirampus pirinampu) is caught in the transitional months between seasons (April and October) and a relatively high diversity of fish is caught in the dry season (May–September). Cast nets are used especially in the wet season, longlines in the transition period, and gillnets and fishing rods in the dry season. In the wet season, P. lineatus is abundant and fishermen concentrate on fishing, whereas in the dry season some fishermen look for other jobs in construction, agriculture and local distilleries, and fishing is almost for subsistence. In the transition period, only fishermen who have rights on fishing grounds, used for longlines to catch P. pirinampu, continue to fish commercially. Predictability of fish migrations, fish abundance and market value of fish species are factors determining gears used, territorial rights and shift of economic activities at Grande River.

Use and misuse of the concepts of tradition and property rights in the conservation of natural resources in the atlantic forest (Brazil)

The relationship between resource management, local populations, and property regimes has long puzzled researchers and policy-makers. The constant failure of conservation policy reliant upon privatization and statization, has led both policy makers and researchers to recognize the importance of customary practices to achieve conservation. Yet, the overemphasis on traditional populations and collective property regimes as the way to promote conservation can be misleading. In this paper, we discuss the debate on local populations and resource conservation in the Southeastern Atlantic Forest, Brazil. The analysis focuses on 1) the concept of traditional populations; 2) the complexity of overlapping property regimes; 3) the potential for a loose relationship between traditional populations and collective property regimes, and; 4) the implications of this approach for non-traditional populations. We conclude that the bias toward tradition and collective property regimes threatens the entire range of local communities along what might be called a traditional-non-traditional populations gradient.

Fishing at Rio Grande (Brazil): Ecological niche and competition

This study is an ecological analysis of the use of resources by two potentially competitive groups, the commercial and recreational fishermen of Rio Grande, located on the border of the States of SÃo Paulo and Minas Gerais. Tourism at Rio Grande was intensified after the construction of the hydroeletric plant of Marimbondo in 1974, and local fishermen have complained about its interference. Values of niche dimensions, such as fishing periods, grounds, and prey caught were obtained through data gathered at landing points. Local and recreational fishermen usually fish in different parts of the river and catch different fish, because they use different gear. However, in transition months between the wet and dry seasons, when fish are less abundant, there is conflict or competition related to fishing grounds, reinforced by the territorial fishing rights of local longline fishermen in this period. We show how ecological concepts, such as niche and competition, may help to understand strategies of exploitation by human groups, fundamental information for the management of tropical areas.

Environmental governance in Latin America

The multiple purposes of nature - livelihood for communities, revenues for states, commodities for companies, and biodiversity for conservationists - have turned environmental governance in Latin America into a highly contested arena. In such a recourse-rich region, unequal power relations, conflicting priorities, and trade-offs among multiple goals have led to a myriad of contrasting initiatives that are reshaping social relations and rural territories. This edited collection addresses these tensions by unpacking environmental governance as a complex process of formulating and contesting values, procedures and practices shaping the access, control and use of natural resources. Contributors from various fields address the challenges, limitations and possibilities for a more sustainable, equal and fair development. In this book, environmental governance is seen as an overarching concept defining the dynamic and multi-layered repertoire of society-nature interactions, where images of nature and discourses on the use of natural resources are mediated by contextual processes at multiple scales. Environmental governance in Latin America studies the nature and background of contemporary environmental governance in the region as well as the possibilities for more sustainability and socio-environmental justice. In eleven chapters by an international team of experts, important contemporary political changes in environmental governance are discussed, and new initiatives are analyzed.

Introduction: Environment and Society in Contemporary Latin America

Societal change in Latin America is intimately related to nature and natural resources. In this resource-rich region, nature–society relations provide both opportunities and challenges in achieving more fair, equitable and sustainable development. Nearly half of the world’s tropical forests are found in the region, next to several other natural biomes, which together carry a wealth of biodiversity. It holds one-third of the world’s freshwater reserves and one-quarter of the potential arable land. And despite five centuries of extractive activities to serve global markets, the region still holds large volumes of important mineral reserves, including oil, gas, iron, copper and gold (Bovarnick, Alpizar and Schnell, 2010). On the other hand, this “biodiversity superpower” has seen a fast rate of biodiversity loss, increasing ecosystem degradation and one-third of the world’s carbon emissions, mostly a result of the expansion of extractive activities and land-use change (UNEP, 2012). Together, these economic and ecological developments affect a large number of different social groups in all Latin American countries, primarily in rural areas but also in cities. Next to mobilizations and conflicts that attract national and international attention, there are numerous local socioenvironmental tensions that lead to longstanding economic problems and social injustice.

Patterns of Resource Use by Caboclo Communities in the Middle-Lower Amazon

In his chapter, Fabio de Castro provides a detailed analysis of the diversity in the economic strategies deployed by riverine households in the Lower Amazon. The empirical data used in his analysis was collected by means of the Community Statistical Census (CEC), a participative methodology based on community meetings, having encompassed 172 communities and 8,570 households in the region under focus. The economic strategies of the Lower Amazon floodplain populations studied by the author combine four main economic activities: fishing, agriculture, cattle-raising and waged work/pension. A large part of Castro’s article is dedicated to the analysis of the combination of these four main activities in distinct communities and in households of a single community, seeking to verify which factors influenced in the different combinations of these four economic pillars. In both cases, the greatest determinants of this combination variation are the activity’s ‘economic purpose’, ‘each family unit’s structure’ and the ‘degree of access to resources’. The socio-economic picture that emerges from this exercise is a picture of great heterogeneity and not the homogeneity suggested by several authors.