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Mestizo subsistence strategies in a floodplain community of the Peruvian Amazon are examined within a cultural ecological context. The riparian economy, derived from aboriginal techniques of resource utilization, consists of a systematic use of diverse biotopes that have been fashioned by the lateral and vertical dynamics of the river. The model of horizontal zonation of agriculture proposed by DENEVAN is adopted to explain the subsistence strategies of riparian mestizos. The bulk of the inhabitants' food and fiber needs is met through farming. Two farming systems, i.e., polycultural shifting cultivation and multi-variety permanent field cropping, are practiced by the residents. The former is carried out on the flood-free levee tops, while the latter occurs on terrain subject to annual inundation. Aside from farming, collecting, fishing, and hunting provide impor tant supplementary sources of food and marketable goods. The traditional livelihood techniques have shown to be adaptable to commercial economy. As such, they may be of potential value in the development of the Amazon. Sustained-yield agriculture, and thus surplus food production is possible on the bottomland soils where plant nutrients are cyclically replenished by the floodwater. Agriculture based on multiple biotope use favors family farming; therefore, it offers the possibilities for accomodating a large number of inhabitants, especially from the densely populated regions with marginal agricultural possibilities. The floodplain environments appear to be more resilient under intensive and continuous use than the interfluvial areas where major ecological disruptions have resulted from large scale agricultural development attempts.

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