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This article examines transformations associated with changes in resource use and land cover dynamics in the community of São Manoel, Maranhão state, in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. The shifting cultivator peasants in São Manoel integrate swidden fields for annual cropping, the extraction of babassu palm products, and pastures for cattle ranching. Since the early twentieth century, predominant vegetative cover patterns have been altered from species-rich mature forests to secondary succession with babassu dominant to pasture or swidden fields containing palm stands of various densities. A grounded political ecology of resource use in the area suggests that management strategies and the resulting land cover dynamics integrate site-specific decisions of peasant producers. I discuss the trajectory of production strategies in São Manoel since the establishment of the community in the 1920s, and identify the multiple dimensions affecting resource use and environmental outcomes, with an emphasis on the period following land struggles and the recovery of peasant tenure rights in the mid-1980s. The analysis indicates that socionatural trajectories that optimize resource use and address the socioeconomic needs of the community include the maintenance of palm/pastures associations.

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Resumo A amêndoa de babaçu (Attalea speciosa Mart. ex Spreng) é um dos principais produtos da extração vegetal no Brasil. As florestas secundárias formadas por babaçuais localizam-se na transição entre Amazônia, Cerrado e Nordeste semiárido, área onde reside um dos mais expressivos contingentes do campesinato no país. Apesar da disponibilidade de dados sobre a produção comercial de amêndoas, uma ampla gama de produtos derivados do babaçu é ignorada pelos levantamentos oficiais da produção extrativa. Para suprir essa lacuna, este trabalho examinou a importância econômica de produtos derivados da palmeira de babaçu em 200 comunidades agroextrativistas no vale do rio Mearim, no Maranhão, a principal região produtora. Projeções feitas a partir de diagnósticos socioeconômicos aplicados em 2017 a mais de mil domicílios em 18 municípios do Médio Mearim indicam que a valoração monetária de toda a produção de derivados de babaçu obtida apenas nesse território alcançaria cerca de R$ 100 milhões, valor três vezes superior em relação ao que foi divulgado apenas para as amêndoas. Compreender os detalhes da importância econômica dos produtos do babaçu é condição necessária para delinear instrumentos não apenas para o fortalecimento desta economia, como também para reforçar a conservação dos babaçuais e proporcionar melhores condições de vida para as comunidades agroextrativistas.

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Findings from a survey on sources of income and land allocation outcomes of 578 households from 26 communities with diverse ethnic composition at distinct environmental settings in Ucayali (Peruvian Amazon) are used to contrast livelihood strategies featuring high forest and high agriculture dependency, examining whether agricultural intensification can be linked to lower deforestation. A typology of households based on their land use allocation profile was used to assess current and cumulative cleared land. Recently cleared areas by households oriented to perennials, semi-perennials and pastures were similar to those focusing on annual crops. Multiple class comparisons provided evidence that land use intensification is not associated to land sparing. Near 40% of the households＇ annual income was derived from forests, followed by agriculture (25%), wages (17%) and livestock (11%). Income structure was used to determine high dependency on forests and on agriculture, featured by respectively 24% and 17% of the households, while 10% relied mostly on wages and/or businesses and half of them had a balanced income structure. Results indicate different expressions of the criticality of forest products, highlighting livelihood strategies based on the integration of income sources. Moreover, the study shows that despite the relevance of forest products, mestizo and indigenous livelihoods heavily depend on agriculture. Policy interventions aimed at environmental conservation and economic development will only be successful when strengthening the integration between agriculture and forest use featured by different social groups in the Amazon.