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Tenure Diversity and Dependent Causation in the Effects of Regional Integration on Land Use: Evaluating the Evolutionary Theory of Land Rights in Acre, Brazil

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Abstract

In the complex causation behind land change, dependent causation can play a central role. A case in point concerns land tenure diversity, where contrasting use rules for different lands may affect the impacts of other drivers on land use outcomes. We therefore evaluate the evolutionary theory of land rights (ETLR), which assumes homogeneous private property rights, in order to test for dependent causation due to distinct use rules among various types of private lands. In the present analysis, we focus on whether land tenure type modifies the effects of highway infrastructure on key outcomes highlighted in the ETLR framework. We take up the case of rural settlements along the Inter-Oceanic Highway in the eastern part of the Brazilian state of Acre, where there is considerable land tenure diversity. Findings from multivariate models for land titling, the castanha nut harvest and cattle pasture all indicate that the effects of infrastructure depend on land tenure type. These results confirm the importance of dependent causation behind land use and bear implications for theory on land change, infrastructure impacts, and land system science.

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... Land tenure systems mediate the relationship between social actors amongst themselves and towards land and its resources, defining access, use, withdrawal, and alienation rights and duties (Corbera et al. 2011;Schlager and Ostrom 1992). These differences cause diverse land management strategies by landholders leading to distinct FCC outcomes (Paneque-Gálvez et al. 2013;Perz et al. 2017). For example, in Brazil, rapid deforestation was an outcome of the establishment of agrarian reform rural settlements, as settlers were expected to clear and keep the land under productive use to secure tenure (Fearnside 2001). ...
Thesis
Die anhaltende Entwaldung tropischer Regenwälder und die damit einhergehenden sozialen und ökologischen Folgen finden zunehmend Beachtung nationaler Regierungen und zivilgesellschaftlicher Akteure, die Initiativen zur Verringerung der Entwaldung und Strategien zum Schutz von Lebensräumen und Artenvielfalt entwickelt haben. Die Waldrestaurierung, d.h. die Wiederherstellung von Waldökosystemen, stellt hierbei, neben der Verringerung der Entwaldung, ein entscheidendes Ziel dar. Brasilien spielt in diesem Zusammenhang eine entscheidende Rolle. Der Großteildes Amazonas-Regenwaldes, der größte zusammenhängende tropische Regenwald der Welt, liegt auf brasilianischem Gebiet. Nahezu 18% des brasilianischen Regenwaldes sind bereits gerodet. Landspekulation, Bergbau, und Landwirtschaft stellen die stärkste Bedrohung für die Existenz des Regenwaldes dar. Im Rahmen des Pariser Abkommens hat sich Brasilien dazu verpflichtet die Netto-Entwaldung bis 2030 zu stoppen und 12 Millionen Hektar Waldökosysteme wiederherzustellen. Eine zentrale Rolle für die Umsetzung der Verpflichtung kommt dem brasilianischen Waldschutzgesetz (BFC) zu, der wichtigsten brasilianischen Umweltgesetzgebung, die die Rahmenbedingungen für die Landnutzung auf privatem Landbesitz regelt. Im brasilianischen Amazon verlangt das BFC den Schutz von 80% der natürlichen Vegetation, als sogenanntes Legal Reserves (LRs). In der neusten Gesetzesversion von 2012 wurde erstmals der Umgang mit denjenigen Landbesitzern festgelegt, die den Gesetzesvorgaben nicht entsprechen. Es wird erwartet, dass die Umsetzung des neuen BFCs auf der einen Seite den Schutz der Wälder in den LRs gewährleistet und auf der andern Seite, unter Mitwirkung der Landbesitzer, zu ein großflächige Waldrestaurierung führt. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist das Ziel dieser Dissertation die Potenziale des BFC für den Schutz der Ur- und den nachwachsenden Wäldern zu ermitteln. Im Speziellen habe ich in der vorliegenden Dissertation (i) die Raum-Zeitlichen Veränderungen der Waldflächen im Einflussbereich der Bundesstraße BR-163, zwischen Cuiabá und Santarém, analysiert; (ii) das Potenzial der BFC für den Schutz der des Regenwaldes und für die Waldrestaurierung bewertet; und (iii) prioritäre Gebiete für ein großflächige Waldrestaurierung, unter Einbezug von Kosten, Biodiversität und Kohlenstoffspeicherung, identifiziert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass ein Großteil der massiven Entwaldung in der Region zwischen Cuiabá und Santarém auf privaten Grundstücken stattfand. Dies lässt auf eine weitverbreitete Nichteinhaltung des BFCs schließen. Hohe Netto-Entwaldungsraten und eine rückläufige Verbreitung nachwachsenden Waldes deutet darauf hin, dass die Region weit von einer Trendwende von Netto-Waldverlust, zu Netto-Waldzuwachs entfernt ist. Um eine Ausbreitung der Wälder voranzutreiben, ist es daher notwendig, das Management der Ur- und nachwachsenden Wälder zu verbessern. Die Ergebnisse dieser Dissertation zeigen, dass mehr als 6 Millionen Hektar der derzeitigen Waldregeneration geschützt und ein Drittel der LR-Defizite ausgeglichen werden könnten, wenn die nachwachsenden Wälder in die Schutzzonen der LRs einbezogen werden. Die künftige Regulierung der BFC-Ausgleichsmechanismen wird einen entscheidenden Effekt auf die Waldrestaurierung und den Schutz der Urwälder haben. Die Analyse möglicher Regulierungs-Szenarien hat deutliche Variation zwischen prioritären Gebieten für die Waldrestaurierung in Mato Grosso gezeigt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Waldrestaurierung auf privaten Grundstücken entscheidend für den Schutz von Biodiversität ist. Demgegenüber zeigt sich die Wiederherstellung von Waldökosystemen auf öffentlichem Land kostengünstiger und effektiver für die Kohlenstoffspeicherung. Die Ergebnisse demonstrieren die Relevanz detaillierter räumlicher Informationen zu Landbesitz und Landnutzungsänderungen, um die Auswirkungen von neuen rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen für den Waldschutz und die Waldrestaurierung in tropischen Gebieten zu untersuchen. Die Schätzungen der derzeit nachwachsenden Waldflache, und dessen Schutzstatus, sind entscheidend um die nationalen Ziele der Waldrestaurierung zu erreichen. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen, dass ein besseres Management von nachwachsenden Waldökosystemen durch Bundes- und Landesgesetze notwendig ist, und neue Strategien und Mechanismen, die den Schutz nachwachsenden Wäldern sicherstellen, erarbeitet werden müssen.
... Land tenure has been the concern of academia for a long time (Harris, 1953;Perz et al., 2017). The privatisation of grassland property rights or use rights has been regarded as a panacea to avoid overgrazing and protect the grassland ecosystem, in order to avoid the situation termed 'the tragedy of the commons' (Hardin, 1968;McEvoy, 1987;Ybarra, 2009). ...
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There is a certain style of analysis of the process of rural development which posits a unilinear process in which the ‘penetration’ of capital into areas in which petty commodity production predominates inevitably leads to the separation of direct producers from their means of production, that is, the land, and their subsequent transformation into agricultural or urban wage labourers. This approach assumes no previous articulation with capital, thus denying the heterogeneity of relations between so‐called pre‐capitalist and capitalist social formations. In addition, the form and trajectory of the transformation process are seen to be predetermined by the laws of the reproduction of capital. This article will discuss the struggle for land in the State of Acre in the Brazilian Amazon. It will argue that the outcome of this and similar struggles cannot be simply ‘read off from economic laws, but depends upon a combination of economic, political and socio‐ecological factors that vary through time and space.
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Patterns in property values provide strong signals about the future and sustainability of land use. This paper analyzes the determinants of land value in an Amazonian frontier settlement. We estimate hedonic price functions to identify factors that affect the value of farm properties in the western Brazilian Amazon. Distance to market explains nearly one-third of the variation in farm value, as predicted by the von Thünen model. After controlling for location relative to the central market and for municipality, we find that investment in the farms (as reflected in the stocking rate of pastures and the establishment of home gardens) has the next largest impact on land value. The value per hectare of land is negatively related to total lot size, suggesting that any economies of scale are outweighed by the cost of accessing remote corners of large properties. We do not find that land values are related to available measures of biophysical factors or to historic or current land use. Our results do not identify any premium for forest cover or for land uses considered to be more sustainable than pasture on the property itself. However, farm values are affected by neighboring land cover, specifically, the extent of barren land. Thus, local knowledge of factors contributing to future productivity, as summarized in land values, confirms that soil exhaustion can lead to a general decline in property values, while investments in a property both as a homestead and as a farm can help sustain frontier settlements.
Article
Based on 15 years of research in Brazil, this book is an interdisciplinary documentation and analysis of the process of frontier change in one region of the Brazilian Amazon, the southern region of the state of Para. The authors' analysis was based on the idea that what they documented in the field - deforestation, settlement patterns, and the intensity of rural violence, for example - were the outcomes of the competition for resources among social groups capable of mobilizing varying degrees of power. The analysis of these contests illustrates how national and international factors often shaped events at the local level, thereby propelling the story of frontier expansion in different and unexpected directions. Part One focuses on Amazonia as a whole. The authors review the history of the region, and analyze the federal and state policies that set into motion the contemporary process of frontier expansion. In parts Two and Three, they present the results of their empirical work on the evolution of frontier communities in southern Para. Each local history develops the general themes put forth in the first section. The final chapter brings the text back to larger issues of understanding such frontier change, especially in light of the country's anthropological, sociological, and demographic shifts and collisions.
Article
The state government of Acre, Brazil, has integrated ecological, cultural, social, and economic forest values into a comprehensive forest policy to manage Acre's abundance of comparatively pristine forests, while couching specific goals and the processes for achieving them within a broader sustainable development framework. Inspired by the rubber tapper culture and social movement, policy implementation has been advanced with broad support from national and international allies. While these experiments in forest-based development serve as a hopeful alternative to the steady deforestation observed in Amazonia, many long-term ecological, economic, cultural, and political challenges remain for sustaining and adapting these policy initiatives.
Article
A study of decentralization of road administration in developing countries has been undertaken, including a literature review, and field studies in Nepal, Uganda and Zambia. The findings are reported under the headings of: constitutions and governance; policy and planning; financial and fiscal aspects; institutions, management and human resources; operations; and contribution to poverty alleviation. Decentralization of road administration has potential for improving the delivery of rural transport infrastructure services. But the evidence from this study suggests that it is proving difficult to realize fully the expected benefits. Problems include: lack of local government powers to exercise political influence; insufficient financial resources; lack of management capability; and a lack of accountability mechanisms. Limited data also suggest that there is little evidence of existing decentralized systems being particularly responsive to addressing the needs of the rural poor. There is a need for the poor to be involved more actively in the planning, financing and implementation process. Different models for administrative decentralization are described and recommendations are made for approaches likely to be the most appropriate for rural transport infrastructure administration and management. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Article
Economics textbooks invariably describe the important economic choices that all societies must make by the following three questions: What goods are to be produced? How are these goods to be produced? Who is to get what is produced? This way of stating social choice problems is misleading. Economic organizations necessarily do resolve these issues in one fashion or another, but even the most centralized societies do not and cannot specify the answer to these questions in advance and in detail. It is more useful and nearer to the truth to view a social system as relying on techniques, rules, or customs to resolve conflicts that arise in the use of scarce resources rather than imagining that societies specify the particular uses to which resources will be put.
Article
The emergence of Brazilian extractive reserves reinforced the notion that sustainable forest use could play a central role in conservation. Brazil nut is considered a model non-timber product for promoting conservation through use. Demographic studies, however, have demonstrated differential impacts of nut harvest on Brazil nut population structure. Comparing three populations with different forest use histories, degrees of road access, and recent levels of nut harvest, we asked: (1) Are they exhibiting regeneration failure? and (2) Are seedling/sapling densities explained by adult Brazil nut structure, fruit fate and/or overall forest structure? We installed four 9-ha plots in each site to census Brazil nut trees ⩾10 cm dbh, and within each plot, 36 subplots (25 × 25 m each) to quantify regeneration, overall forest structure, and open and closed fruit counts. Approximately 29–55% of fruits was unharvested, and more than 90% of these was opened by scatterhoarding dispersers. Population structure approximated a reverse-J size class distribution, with seedling densities varying from 3.2 to 5.8 individuals ha−1. We conclude that within the current harvest context, regeneration is sufficient for population persistence in our sites, at least over the medium term. The socioeconomics of sustainably managing Brazil nut is the greater challenge, involving interlinked competitive land uses, nut quality, and substantial increases in local income from harvest. Some of these challenges are being addressed in Brazil, Bolivia and Peru, providing hope that this cornerstone extractive species will continue to play a prominent role in the ecological and economic landscape of Amazonia.
Article
On the basis of themes emerging in current debates on rural development in Latin America, this paper develops an analytical framework for analyzing rural livelihoods in terms of their sustainability and their implications for rural poverty. The framework argues that our analyses of rural livelihoods need to understand them in terms of: (a) people’s access to five types of capital asset; (b) the ways in which they combine and transform those assets in the building of livelihoods that as far as possible meet their material and their experiential needs; (c) the ways in which people are able to expand their asset bases through engaging with other actors through relationships governed by the logics of the state, market and civil society; and (d) the ways in which they are able to deploy and enhance their capabilities both to make living more meaningful and to change the dominant rules and relationships governing the ways in which resources are controlled, distributed and transformed in society. Particular attention is paid to the importance of social capital as an asset through which people are able to widen their access to resources and other actors.
Article
Autism has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years, thanks to dramatically increasing rates of diagnosis, extensive organizational mobilization, journalistic coverage, biomedical research, and clinical innovation.Understanding Autism, a social history of the expanding diagnostic category of this contested illness, takes a close look at the role of emotion--specifically, of parental love--in the intense and passionate work of biomedical communities investigating autism. Chloe Silverman tracks developments in autism theory and practice over the past half-century and shows how an understanding of autism has been constituted and stabilized through vital efforts of schools, gene banks, professional associations, government committees, parent networks, and treatment conferences. She examines the love and labor of parents, who play a role in developing--in conjunction with medical experts--new forms of treatment and therapy for their children. While biomedical knowledge is dispersed through an emotionally neutral, technical language that separates experts from laypeople, parental advocacy and activism call these distinctions into question. Silverman reveals how parental care has been a constant driver in the volatile field of autism research and treatment, and has served as an inspiration for scientific change. Recognizing the importance of parental knowledge and observations in treating autism, this book reveals that effective responses to the disorder demonstrate the mutual interdependence of love and science.
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Incluye bibliografía No existe original en Biblioteca Humanidades
Article
This study assesses the economic implications of land ownership security in rural Thailand. It uses data from this country to rigorously analyze several aspects of land ownership security. It provides both qualitative and quantiative information on the effects of ownership security. The study presents a conceptual model and literature review and is followed by separate discussions on the evolution of land rights in Thailand; the study methodology and the nature of the data; and the credit market. A formal model of land acquisition and ownership security underlies the empirical discussions presented in subsequent chapters on land values; capital formation and land improvements; and, input use and farm productivity. The impact of usufruct certificates is then assessed, and is followed by an analysis of the benefits and costs of land titling. The study demonstrates and concludes that land ownership security in Thailand has a substantial impact on farmers' agricultural performance.
Article
It is widely believed that land tenure insecurity under a customary tenure system leads to a socially inefficient resource allocation. This article demonstrates that the practice of granting secure individual ownership to tree planters spurs earlier tree planting, which is inefficient from the private point of view but could be efficient from the viewpoint of the global environment. Regression analysis, based on primary data collected in Sumatra, indicates that an expected increase in tenure security in fact led to early tree planting. It is also found that customary land tenure institutions have been evolving towards greater tenure security responding to increasing scarcity of land.
Land system science in latin america: Challenges and perspectives. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability
  • S Boillat
  • F M Scarpa
  • J P Robson
  • I Gasparri
  • T M Aide
  • A P Aguiar
  • . . Brondizio
Boillat, S., Scarpa, F.M., Robson, J.P., Gasparri, I., Aide, T.M., Dutra Aguiar, A.P.,... Brondizio, E.S. (2017). Land system science in latin america: Challenges and perspectives. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 26, 37-46. doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2017.01.015
Road ecology: science and solutions
  • R T T Forman
  • D Sperling
  • J A Bisonette
  • A P Clevenger
  • C D Cutshall
  • V H Dale
  • . . Winter
Forman, R.T.T., Sperling, D., Bisonette, J.A., Clevenger, A.P., Cutshall, C.D., Dale, V.H.,... Winter, T.C. (2003). Road ecology: science and solutions. Washington, DC: Island Press.
From teleconnection to telecoupling: Taking stock of an emerging framework in land system science
  • C Friis
  • J Østergard Nielsen
  • I Otero
  • H Haberl
  • J Niewöhner
  • P Hostert
Friis, C., Østergard Nielsen, J., Otero, I., Haberl, H., Niewöhner, J., & Hostert, P. (2016). From teleconnection to telecoupling: Taking stock of an emerging framework in land system science. Journal of Land Use Science, 11(2), 131-153. doi:10.1080/1747423X.2015.1096423
Approaches and terminology for causal analysis in land systems science
  • P Meyfroit
Meyfroit, P. (2016). Approaches and terminology for causal analysis in land systems science. Journal of Land Use Science, 11, 501-522. doi:10.1080/1747423X.2015.1117530