Stephen Aldrich

Theorizing Land Cover and Land Use Change: The Peasant Economy of Amazonian Deforestation

Abstract This article addresses deforestation processes in the Amazon basin, using regression analysis to assess the impact of household structure and economic circumstances on land use decisions made by colonist farmers in the forest frontiers of Brazil. Unlike many previous regression-based studies, the methodology implemented analyzes behavior at the level of the individual property, using both survey data and information derived from the classification of remotely sensed imagery. The regressions correct for endogenous relationships between key variables and spatial autocorrelation, as necessary. Variables used in the analysis are specified, in part, by a theoretical development integrating the Chayanovian concept of the peasant household with spatial considerations stemming from von Thünen. Results from the empirical model indicate that demographic characteristics of households, as well as market factors, affect deforestation in the Amazon basin associated with colonists. Therefore, statistical results from studies that do not include household-scale information may be subject to error. From a policy perspective, the results suggest that environmental policies in the Amazon based on market incentives to small farmers may not be as effective as hoped, given the importance of household factors in catalyzing the demand for land. The article concludes by noting that household decisions regarding land use and deforestation are not independent of broader social circumstances, and that a full understanding of Amazonian deforestation will require insight into why poor families find it necessary to settle the frontier in the first place.

Land-Cover and Land-Use Change in the Brazilian Amazon: Smallholders, Ranchers, and Frontier Stratification

Abstract Tropical deforestation is a significant driver of global environmental change, given its impacts on the carbon cycle and biodiversity. Loss of the Amazon forest, the focus of this article, is of particular concern because of the size and the rapid rate at which the forest is being converted to agricultural use. In this article, we identify what has been the most important driver of deforestation in a specific colonization frontier in the Brazilian Amazon. To this end, we consider (1) the land-use dynamics of smallholder households, (2) the formation of pasture by large-scale ranchers, and (3) structural processes of land aggregation by ranchers. Much has been written about relations between smallholders and ranchers in the Brazilian Amazon, particularly those involving conflict over land, and this article explicates the implications of such social processes for land cover. Toward this end, we draw on panel data (1996–2002) and satellite imagery (1986–1999) to show the deforestation that is attributable to small- and largeholders, and the deforestation that is attributable to aggregations of property arising from a process that we refer to as frontier stratification. Evidently, most of the recent deforestation in the study area has resulted from the household processes of smallholders, not from conversions to pasture pursuant to the appropriations of smallholders’ property by well-capitalized ranchers or speculators.

The Amazon Land War in the South of Pará

Abstract The South of Pará, located in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, has become notorious for violent land struggle. Although land conflict has a long history in Brazil, and today impacts many parts of the country, violence is most severe and persistent here. The purpose of this article is to examine why. Specifically, we consider how a particular Amazonian place, the so-called South of Pará, has come to be known as Brazils most dangerous badland. We begin by considering the predominant literature, which attributes land conflict to the frontier expansion process with intensified struggle emerging in the face of rising property values and demand for private property associated with capitalist development. From this discussion, we distill a concept of the frontier, based on notions of property rights evolution and locational rents. We then empirically test the persistence of place-based violence in the region, and assess the frontier movement through an analysis of transportation costs. Findings from the analyses indicate that the prevalent theorization of frontier violence in Amazônia does little to explain its persistent and pervasive nature in the South of Pará. To fill this gap in understanding, we develop an explanation based on the geographic conception of place, and we use contentious politics theory heuristically to elucidate the ways in which general processes interact with place-specific history to engender a landscape of violence. In so doing, we focus on environmental, cognitive, and relational mechanisms (and implicated structures), and attempt to deploy them in an explanatory framework that allows direct observation of the accumulating layers of the regions tragic history. We end by placing our discussion within a political ecological context, and consider the implications of the Amazon Land War for the environment.

Accuracy Assessment for a Simulation Model of Amazonian Deforestation

Abstract This article describes a quantitative assessment of the output from the Behavioral Landscape Model (BLM), which has been developed to simulate the spatial pattern of deforestation (i.e. forest fragmentation) in the Amazon basin in a manner consistent with human behavior. The assessment consists of eighteen runs for a section of the Transamazon Highway in the lower basin, where the BLMs simulated deforestation map for each run is compared to a reference map of 1999. The BLM simulates the transition from forest to non-forest in a spatially explicit manner in 20-m × 20-m pixels. The pixels are nested within a hierarchical stratification structure of household lots within larger development rectangles that emanate from the Transamazon Highway. Each of the eighteen runs derives from a unique combination of three model parameters. We have derived novel methods of assessment to consider (1) the nested stratification structure, (2) multiple resolutions, (3) a simpler model that predicts deforestation near the highway, (4) a null model that predicts forest persistence, and (5) a uniform model that has accuracy equal to the expected accuracy of a random spatial allocation. Results show that the models specification of the overall quantity of non-forest is the most important factor that constrains and correlates with accuracy. A large source of location agreement is the BLMs assumption that deforestation within household lots occurs near roads. A large source of location disagreement is the BLMs less than perfect ability to simulate the proportion of deforestation by household lot. This article discusses implications of these results in the context of land change science and dynamic simulation modeling. Eugenio Arima and Marcellus Caldas were affiliated with Michigan State University during the time the work reported in this article was done.

Contentious Land Change in the Amazon's Arc of Deforestation

Land change in the Amazon is driven by numerous factors including fiscal incentives, infrastructure, transportation costs, migration, and household decision making. Largely missing from the story to date, however, is the role of contentious social processes, including contention over land resources. By employing a case study of land conflict over a largeholding in southeastern Pará, Brazil, and a regional-scale statistical model, we describe contentious land change (C-LC) in an area with a long history of antagonism between largeholders and the rural poor. We fuse the conceptual frameworks of political ecology with the methodological approaches of land change science to show that deforestation in the area of study is enhanced due to the interaction of diverse and adversarial agents rather than the independent actions of isolated land managers deforesting according to the dictates of microeconomic optimization. C-LC is a process of global reach and must therefore be added to the topical range of land change science. A combination of the explanatory richness of political ecology with the methodological rigor of land change science greatly enhances our understanding of land change processes.

Locating Amazonian Dark Earths: Creating an interactive GIS of known locations

Amazonian Dark Earths are anthropogenic organic-rich highly fertile soils found in relatively small patches throughout the Amazon Basin. These soils are gaining considerable attention given the relative lower fertility of the majority of Amazonian soils in which they are embedded because of their improved agricultural potential and also because of their links to Amazonian pre-colonial history. Because of their small individual extent and local nature, documenting where these soils are located in the Amazon is a challenging task. Few comprehensive maps exist, and some locations are only approximate. In this article we present an interactive GIS in which we have tried to consolidate all known locations of ADEs to date, and to note for each location a level of accuracy and specificity of both the soil and its location. This is necessary as many older sources of locations are historical and give only an approximation of where they are. For more recent ADE citations, the geo-referenced location is given when available. The source citation is given for each location on the map, making this interactive GIS at once also a bibliography of Amazonian Dark Earth locations. We also discuss the selection of the cited locations, the creation of the GIS, and reflect on the potential uses of the resource. We acknowledge that the GIS is a work in progress, and we anticipate keeping it updated as more materials are published and otherwise made available.

Mapping soils, vegetation, and landforms: An integrative physical geography field experience

Abstract Students in a graduate seminar at Michigan State University produced a series of detailed vegetation, soils, and landform maps of a 1.5-square-mile (3.9 km2) study area in southwest Lower Michigan. The learning outcomes (maps) and skill development objectives (sampling strategies and various GIS applications) of this field-intensive mapping experience were driven by the assumption that students learn and understand relationships among physical landscape variables better by mapping them than they would in a classroom-based experience. The group-based, problem-solving format was also intended to foster collaboration and camaraderie. The study area lies within a complex, interlobate moraine. Fieldwork involved mapping in groups of two or three, as well as soil and vegetation sampling. Spatial data products assembled and used in the project included topographic maps, a digital elevation model (DEM), aerial photographs, and NRCS (National Resource Conservation Service) soil maps. Most of the soils are dry and sandy, with the main differentiating characteristic being the amount of, and depth to, subsurface clay bands (lamellae) or gravelly zones. The presettlement (early 1830s) vegetation of the area was oak forest, oak savanna, and black oak “barrens.” Upland sites currently support closed forests of white, black, and red oak, with a red maple, dogwood, and sassafras understory. Ecological data suggest that these oak forests will, barring major disturbance, become increasingly dominated by red maple. This group-based, problem-solving approach to physical geography education has several advantages over traditional classroom-based teaching and could also be successfully applied in other, field-related disciplines. *This study would not have been possible without the generous support provided by the Field Trip Endowment Fund of the Department of Geography at Michigan State University. Special thanks are extended to Greg Thoen, of the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), for helping us identify the site and for many other forms of support and encouragement. Christina Hupy assisted in the field.

Spatial Processes in Scalar Context: Development and Security in the Brazilian Amazon

This paper discusses the evolution of the development and security discourse since the waning of the cold war period, and examines how such notions influenced policies pursued by the Brazilian government regarding Amazonian development and national security during the same time period. The theoretical framework presented examines the socio-political construction of security across a nested hierarchy of spatial scales. In general, the paper contends that the development and security agenda served to undermine the security of Amazonias poor, rural population, which is defined here as the right of individuals to access land necessary for subsistence and improvement of social welfare. In turn, threats to security at this level may directly affect national security if land competition intensifies social tension and mobilization, impacting political stability, and possibly leading to civil unrest. Furthermore, the spatial articulation of land conflict in the Amazon may exacerbate deforestation, thus threatening the environmental security of nation-states as defined by the global community. The paper outlines a conceptual framework illustrating the interaction of local and regional human security with global environmental security concerns, and presents preliminary findings from 292 household surveys and key informant interviews conducted in 12 settlement sites in the south of Pará in the summer of 2006 that support the models assertions.
 Este artigo discute a evolução do discurso sobre desenvolvimento e segurança desde o fim da Guerra Fria, e examina como tais noções influenciaram as políticas públicas adotadas pelo governo brasileiro com relação ao desenvolvimento da Amazônia e a segurança nacional durante este mesmo período de tempo. O arcabouço teoríco utilizado examina a construção socio-política da segurança, utilizando para isto, uma hierarquia espacial de escalas. Em geral, este artigo afirma que a agenda de desenvolvimento e segurança serviram para debilitar a segurança da pobre população rural da Amazônia, o qual é definida aqui como, o direito dos indivíduos de ter acesso a terra necessária para a sobrevivência e melhoria do bem-estar social. Por sua vez, ameaças a segurança a este nível pode diretamente afetar a segurança nacional, se a competição por terra intensificar a tensão social e a mobilização, impactando a estabilidade política, e possivelmente levando a uma intranquilidade da sociedade civil. Além disso, a articulação espacial do conflito de terra na Amazônia pode aumentar o desmatamento, e consequentemente, ameaçar a segurança das nações-estados, como definido pela comunidade internacional. Finalmente, o artigo esboça um arcabouço conceitual ilustrando a interação entre a segurança humana local e regional, com as preocupações com a seguranca ambiental global, e apresenta resultados preliminaries de 292 questionários, e entrevistas com informante chaves, conduzidos em 12 assentamentos localizados no Sul do Pará, no verão de 2006, dando suporte ao modelo e as afirmações feitas.

A Presence-Only Model of Suitable Roosting Habitat for the Endangered Indiana Bat in the Southern Appalachians

We know little about how forest bats, which are cryptic and mobile, use roosts on a landscape scale. For widely distributed species like the endangered Indiana bat Myotis sodalis, identifying landscape-scale roost habitat associations will be important for managing the species in different regions where it occurs. For example, in the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA, M. sodalis roosts are scattered across a heavily forested landscape, which makes protecting individual roosts impractical during large-scale management activities. We created a predictive spatial model of summer roosting habitat to identify important predictors using the presence-only modeling program MaxEnt and an information theoretic approach for model comparison. Two of 26 candidate models together accounted for >0.93 of AICc weights. Elevation and forest type were top predictors of presence; aspect north/south and distance-to-ridge were also important. The final average best model indicated that 5% of the study area was suitable habitat and 0.5% was optimal. This model matched our field observations that, in the southern Appalachian Mountains, optimal roosting habitat for M. sodalis is near the ridge top in south-facing mixed pine-hardwood forests at elevations from 260–575 m. Our findings, coupled with data from other studies, suggest M. sodalis is flexible in roost habitat selection across different ecoregions with varying topography and land use patterns. We caution that, while mature pine-hardwood forests are important now, specific areas of suitable and optimal habitat will change over time. Combining the information theoretic approach with presence-only models makes it possible to develop landscape-scale habitat suitability maps for forest bats.

The Amazonian Theater of Cruelty

This article deploys the “Theater of Cruelty,” articulated by the French surrealist Antonin Artaud, as a conceptual heuristic to explicate the empirical world of contemporary Amazonia, in particular the “South of Pará,” a site of land war and forest destruction, which the Theater of Cruelty posits as a single dramatic event. We pursue this explication via direct physical immersion, in the form of a travelogue following State Road PA-150 from Marabá to Eldorado dos Carajás, the scene of a massacre of nineteen land reform activists, shot down by Brazilian military police in collusion with the landed elite in 1996. Along the way, we have occasion to encounter the land reform movements and the forces of repression, which we depict both descriptively and theoretically, using our field trip as a point of departure for philosophical elaboration. To this end, we activate Artauds “Theater of Cruelty” to disclose the nature of violent conflict in the region. We suggest that theater, more generally, provides structure for cruel performance, and that violent land conflict, together with forest destruction, constitutes a predictable tragedy of theatrical events. In other words, violent land conflict in Amazônia, with all its terrible implications for people and environment, can be grasped as a theatrical structure, with philosophic and material consequences for mind and body. Thus, we articulate the development discourse of Amazônia as a violent, existential game, not a narrative of disembodied forces.