A regional experiment in co-management is underway in the Lower Amazon that is developing the basic policy and institutional elements for an ecosystem-based approach to floodplain management. This initiative grew out of the grassroots movement of floodplain communities who, concerned with excessive commercial fishing pressure on local fisheries, took control of local lakes and implemented collective agreements regulating fishing activity. This paper describes the main elements of the evolving regional management system. This process has focused on four main dimensions of floodplain settlement and resource use: development of sustainable management systems for floodplain resources, policies and institutions for fisheries co-management, collective agreements for grazing cattle on floodplain grasslands, and a land tenure policy consistent with the objectives of the evolving co-management system. Over the last year INCRA, the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform, has begun implementation of a comprehensive new land tenure policy that could resolve structural deficiencies in the existing co-management system and provide the basis for the ecosystem-based management of the Lower Amazon floodplain.Keywords Amazon Á Co-management Á Ecosystem management Á Fisheries Á Floodplain Á Varzea Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.

Amazonia forest plays a major role in providing ecosystem services for human and sanctuaries for wildlife. However, ongoing deforestation and habitat fragmentation in the Brazilian Amazon has threatened both. The ocelot is an ecologically important mesopredator and a potential conservation ambassador species, yet there are no previous studies on its habitat preference and spatial patterns in this biome. From 2010 to 2017, twelve sites were surveyed, totaling 899 camera trap stations, the largest known dataset for this species. Using occupancy modeling incorporating spatial autocorrelation, we assessed habitat use for ocelot populations across the Brazilian Amazon. Our results revealed a positive sigmoidal correlation between remote‐sensing derived metrics of forest cover, disjunct core area density, elevation, distance to roads, distance to settlements and habitat use, and that habitat use by ocelots was negatively associated with slope and distance to river/lake. These findings shed light on the regional scale habitat use of ocelots and indicate important species–habitat relationships, thus providing valuable information for conservation management and land‐use planning.

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We surveyed the Tapajós–Arapiuns Extractive Reserve in Brazilian Amazonia to investigate hunting of jaguars Panthera onca and pumas Puma concolor. We interviewed 115 people in 45 villages in 2007–2008, and recorded numbers of jaguars and pumas killed and the circumstances associated with each killing. At least 32 jaguars and 22 pumas were killed in the Reserve, most within the last 10 years. However, these are underestimates because people probably did not mention all kills during interviews. The first-order jackknife suggests that the actual mortality for the two species is almost double that reported. Using data from 2006–2007 as a reference we estimated a minimum mortality of 12 jaguars and seven pumas per year in the Reserve. Most animals were killed during chance encounters, a large number of these elicited by domestic dogs. Hunting motivated by livestock predation or perceived risks to human life were rare. Hunters kill large carnivores on sight and thus one alternative to reduce hunting is to take measures that will decrease encounter rates, such as forbidding hunting with dogs. Education and extension programmes are needed to ensure the long-term coexistence of humans and large carnivores in this Reserve.

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