Science has a critical role to play in guiding more sustainable development trajectories. Here, we present the Sustainable Amazon Network ( Rede Amazônia Sustentável , RAS): a multidisciplinary research initiative involving more than 30 partner organizations working to assess both social and ecological dimensions of land-use sustainability in eastern Brazilian Amazonia. The research approach adopted by RAS offers three advantages for addressing land-use sustainability problems: (i) the collection of synchronized and co-located ecological and socioeconomic data across broad gradients of past and present human use; (ii) a nested sampling design to aid comparison of ecological and socioeconomic conditions associated with different land uses across local, landscape and regional scales; and (iii) a strong engagement with a wide variety of actors and non-research institutions. Here, we elaborate on these key features, and identify the ways in which RAS can help in highlighting those problems in most urgent need of attention, and in guiding improvements in land-use sustainability in Amazonia and elsewhere in the tropics. We also discuss some of the practical lessons, limitations and realities faced during the development of the RAS initiative so far.

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Decentralized governance can facilitate the participation of non‐government actors in natural resource management. Yet efforts to increase participation can also enhance the power of existing elites. Here, we analyse the role of landowning elites in developing and operating a hybrid governance arrangement in response to the decentralization of anti‐deforestation policy in the Brazilian Amazon. We employ a framework that permits examination of the role played by different actors, the rationale that promoted collaboration in the first place, and the distribution of power that shapes the still evolving governance arrangement. By engaging state and non‐state actors in a hybrid governance partnership, the local landowning elite in Paragominas, a municipality in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon, successfully achieved the specific goals set by federal policies to be removed from a high deforestation ‘Red List’. Yet the local governors, together with the rural elite, transformed the crisis generated by inclusion in the Red List into an opportunity to shift the rural economy on a path towards more legalized large‐scale agriculture. By aligning production and conservation objectives, the project attracted medium and large landowners, but also failed to prevent − or potentially exacerbated − the further marginalization of smallholders. Rural elites can effectively mobilize hybrid government arrangements in pursuit of their own interests while also producing wider benefits such as a more stimulated urban economy and strengthened environmental compliance. However, inclusion of more marginalized populations in this process remains a severe and largely unaddressed challenge. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

International audienceThe Amazon has recently experienced a dramatic decline in deforestation coupled with economic development. However, this process is uneven. While large and medium-sized producers are intensifying and diversifying their production systems in the already cleared areas, thus apparently abandoning expansion strategies at the moment, family farming remains aloof from this decoupling between production and deforestation. In this article, the commitments of public authorities and sectors, their effects on deforestation and inequalities of adaptation are analyzed at the scale of the Legal Amazon and in a municipality considered as a model because involved in a Município Verde initiative: Paragominas, in the Eastern Amazon.L’Amazonie a amorcé depuis quelques années une baisse de la déforestation couplée à un développement économique. Le processus est cependant inégal. Si les grands et moyens producteurs font évoluer leurs systèmes de production vers l’intensification et la diversification dans les espaces déjà ouverts, délaissant en apparence les stratégies d’expansion, l’agriculture familiale reste à l’écart du découplage entre production et déforestation. Dans cet article, les engagements des pouvoirs publics et des filières, leurs effets en matière de déforestation et les inégalités d’adaptation sont analysés à l’échelle de l’Amazonie Légale et à celle d’une municipalité considérée comme un modèle car à l’initiative d’une démarche de Município Verde : Paragominas, en Amazonie orientale

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