Amazon beef and soybean industries, the primary drivers of Amazon deforestation, are increasingly responsive to economic signals emanating from around the world, such as those associated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, "mad cow disease") outbreaks and China's economic growth. The expanding role of these economic "teleconnections" (coupled phenomena that take place in distant places on the planet) led to a 3-year period (2002-2004) of historically high deforestation rates. But it also increases the potential for large-scale conservation in the region as markets and finance institutions demand better environmental and social performance of beef and soy producers. Cattle ranchers and soy farmers who have generally opposed ambitious government regulations that require forest reserves on private property are realizing that good land stewardship-including compliance with legislation-may increase their access to expanding domestic and international markets and to credit and lower the risk of "losing" their land to agrarian reform. The realization of this potential depends on the successful negotiation of social and environmental performance criteria and an associated system of certification that are acceptable to both the industries and civil society. The foot-and-mouth eradication system, in which geographic zones win permission to export beef, may provide an important model for the design of a low-cost, peer-enforced, socioenvironmental certification system that becomes the mechanism by which beef and soy industries gain access to markets outside the Amazon.

Government commitments and market transitions lay the foundation for an effort to save the forest and reduce carbon emission.

Na Amazônia Brasileira a principal atividade responsável pelo desmatamento é a pecuária. Esse trabalho analisa a evolução das causas imediatas do desmatamento da Amazônia, utilizando-se de regressões lineares com dados em painel. O modelo avalia a contribuição dos principais usos do solo na região ao desmatamento, de 2000 a 2006. Dados do PRODES de desmatamento, o número de cabeças bovinas de 782 municípios da Amazônia e área plantada de culturas perenes e temporárias foram utilizados para essa análise. O resultado mostrou que o desmatamento é fortemente correlacionado com a pecuária. A soja também aparece positivamente correlacionada com o desmatamento. Esta tendência é reforçada pelo crescimento nacional e internacional da demanda de carne. Políticas públicas eficazes para a redução do desmatamento devem, portanto, agir nas causas subjacentes da expansão da pecuária reduzindo a força dos processos que produzem a sua expansão na fronteira do desmatamento.

No abstract

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.

This study characterizes the fishermen and the commercial fishing fleet of the lower Amazon, based on data collected from 5446 boats operating out of the city of Santarém in 1997. An economic analysis of the activities of these boats was based on 50 interviews with boat operators. Larger and smaller boats use essentially the same technology, but there are significant differences in fishing strategies. Smaller boats supply local markets and their catch consists of a large variety of fish species. Larger boats tend to specialize in a small number of catfish species, and supply fish processing plants. Smaller boats are less efficient in terms of catch per unit effort (CPUE) (kg fisherman–1 day–1), but are more efficient economically, earning more for each unit of capital invested than larger boats. Most boats operating from Santarém have a storage capacity of <4 t. Boats in this size (0<4 t) account for 87% of the total fleet direct employment, and 73% of total income. Thus despite the lack of attention from regional policy makers, these smaller boats are an important source of food, income and employment in the lower Amazon region.

Regional differentiation in fleet characteristics and economic efficiency, as well as the total elasticity of scale in the commercial fishing fleets of the Brazilian Amazon were analysed. Data were collected in 893 interviews with boat operators in four major ports on the River Amazon. Boats operating from the largest cities (Belém and Manaus) are mostly operated by hired skippers and non‐permanent crews, while boats from smaller cities (Santarém and Tefé) are mostly owner‐operated and use permanent crews. In the lower Amazon, a large proportion of fishermen (89% in Santarém and 53% in Belém) are based in rural areas, while in the upper Amazon commercial fishermen are predominantly urban‐based. A production function analysis identified boat length, gear type used (gill net/purse seine), number of fishermen employed, quantities of fuel and ice used, and education level of the skipper as significant factors determining the catch. The analysis provided no evidence of regional differences in stock levels. The use of purse seines was associated with significantly higher catches (by 32%), all other factors being equal. Purse seines are banned in the lower Amazon (Santarem and Belem), and this results in overall lower levels of technical efficiency in this region. No significant total scale effect on efficiency was detected. These results are discussed with respect to the institutional sustainability of current fisheries co‐management initiatives.

Co-management agreements, whereby community rules for the management of local floodplain lake fisheries are legalised and enforced by the government, have become common in the lower Amazon. Agreements are intended to limit exploitation, in particular by commercial boats, to raise stock abundance and fisheries productivity for the benefit of local subsistence-oriented fishers and for conservation. A spatially replicated observational study was carried out to evaluate the performance of fishing agreements in terms of perceived rule compliance and actual impacts on fishing activities, catch and catch per unit of effort (CPUE, a measure of fisheries productivity and proxy for stock abundance). Perceived rule compliance was high, and this was corroborated by observed changes in fishing practices. Catch per unit of effort was significantly higher (by 48% on average) in areas subject to fishing agreements than in control areas without. Most likely this effect was attributable to the effective exclusion of mobile commercial fishing boats. Household fishing effort and catch in local communities were not significantly affected by the agreements, although a tendency towards slightly higher catches at lower effort was noticeable. In conclusion, the co-management agreements have led to greater local control over resources and brought significant productivity and conservation benefits. K E Y W O R D S :Amazon, co-management, fishing, floodplain lakes, productivity.