Increasing urbanization in the Brazilian Amazon is associated with a significant change in food habits with processed and industrialized products playing an increasingly important role in the diet and contributing to the nutrition transition in the region.
ABSTRACT. Bushmeat consumption persists in urban areas in the Neotropics, yet knowledge of its scale and the relative importance of cultural and economic factors in determining consumption and preference remain elusive. Moreover, the roles of cultural beliefs, social norms, and attitudes in driving urban bushmeat consumption are rarely evaluated. Therefore, we explored in this article the factors that influence consumption and preference for bushmeat in Amazonian towns. Given the availability of other sources of animal protein and the cultural and social importance of bushmeat in the region, we hypothesized that cultural attributes should be better predictors than economic factors of bushmeat consumption and preference. Data analysis involved fitting two-level mixed-effects regressions (random intercepts) to a structured sample of 227 individuals (99 households) from four towns in the Brazilian (Tabatinga and Atalaia do Norte) and Colombian (Leticia and Puerto Nariño) Amazon. The results indicate that a third of the interviewees had consumed bushmeat in the past month, which had primarily been harvested by the family or received as a gift rather than obtained through trade. In general, both economic and cultural factors predicted bushmeat consumption and preference, but the objective proxy for culture, individual origin, was unimportant. Among the tested indicators, the strongest predictor was the importance of bushmeat to social relations. Moreover, informal social norms, such as the greater importance attributed to taboos, tended to decrease the average number of wild species that a person would eat, whereas attitudes toward the illegality of hunting were less important. The two economic indicators, increased income and wealth, tended to decrease preference for bushmeat and the likelihood of consumption. Our findings highlight the importance of human beliefs, attitudes, and social norms to the understanding of bushmeat consumption and preference and may contribute to the design of more effective and locally appropriate conservation and management strategies.
ABSTRACT. Wild meat is critical for the food security and income of millions of people, especially for poor rural households. Its role as a primary source of macronutrients worldwide has been recognized, but there have been few attempts to evaluate the contribution of bushmeat consumption to micronutrient intake. This is so particularly in the context of nutritional transitions induced by modernization and globalization. Here, we calculated the role of bushmeat as a source of micronutrients in the diets of urban and periurban inhabitants within the Tres Fronteras (Peru, Brazil, Colombia) region in the Amazon. We gathered food intake data from 35 households using 3-day 24-h food recalls combined with food weighing. Additionally, we interviewed 105 households on food consumption frequency. Our results indicate that 14.3% of the households consumed bushmeat, which represented approximately 32% of their caloric intake, 72% of consumed protein, and 77% of iron. Typically, households consuming bushmeat presented higher a nutritional status, i.e., lower intake of carbohydrates (−10%) and higher intake of proteins (+46%), iron (+151%), and zinc (+23%), than households not consuming bushmeat. Most of the sampled households did not achieve standard nutritional requirements for calories (94%), fiber, vitamin C, or iron (97%) per adult per day. None of the households achieved the recommended daily intake for calcium. Households consuming bushmeat consumed statistically significantly higher levels of iron, zinc, and vitamin C than households that did not eat bushmeat. The latter consumed an excess of 31% calories from processed foods per adult per day, and lower amounts of iron (−60%) and zinc (−19%). We argue that households not consuming bushmeat are at greater risk of anemia in the short run and other chronic health problems in the long run.
Methodological thoughts on the study of the urban network in the state of Amazonas and perspectives for the analysis of cities in the brazilian amazon region i i Resumo Estudar a rede urbana evitando conceitos e critérios consolidados tais como "cidade-polo" ou outras formas de hierarquia urbana foi e é um desafio. Na tentativa de classificar e construir uma tipologia da rede urbana para o Estado do Amazonas, as pesquisas desenvolvidas no NEPECAB partiram de uma abordagem metodológica inovadora, na qual uma base empírica ampla daria sustentação ao entendimento do urbano e à rede na região. Delimitou-se um conjunto de arranjos institucionais que poderiam se analisados comparativa e agregadamente, classificar as cidades a partir de suas semelhanças e diferenças originando uma tipologia própria para a compreensão da dinâmica espacial. As pesquisas realizadas no âmbito do NEPECAB permitiram, nesse primeiro momento, entender a dinâmica da rede urbana na calha do Solimões e Amazonas, porém o problema que se vislumbra é como, do ponto de vista teórico e metodológico, estudar esses núcleos urbanos visando compreender, do ponto de vista da Geografia, a configuração de rede urbana que comporta as estratégias das populações e dos poderes locais para a superação das dificuldades de acesso no sentido mais amplo da palavra. O que se coloca como desafio teórico é a compreensão de como essas variáveis ocorre ou não nas cidades no Amazonas e como os resultados da pesquisa podem ser generalizados para outras cidades amazônicas ou como se amoldam as novas dinâmicas dessas cidades? Para fazer frente a questões levantadas é necessário re-pensar os procedimentos metodológicos que conformam o estudo das cidades e das redes urbanas na Amazônia, sem perder o vínculo com o debate nacional e internacional. Para isso, propõe-se para discussão um conjunto de novos arranjos institucionais, agora considerados como níveis interpretativos, que incorporem dimensões amazônicas na análise das cidades e da rede urbana, visando padronizar a coleta de dados em toda a Amazônia para viabilizar a análise comparativa regional.
ABSTRACT. We provide a synthesis of what regional scientific research networks in less developed regions of the world can do and why they might be relevant for societal decisions and practice. We do so through a focus on three regional science network initiatives that aim to enhance understanding of the multiscalar dynamics of global environmental change (GEC) regionally and globally, namely the Southern Africa Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000), the Large-Scale BiosphereAtmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA), and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change (IAI). With a view to aiding future efforts at regional research network formation, we assess whether and how these three networks enhanced regional science, and the extent to which they sought and managed to bridge the science-policy gap that challenges GEC science as a whole. Identifying key decisions and attributes bearing on their successes, the analysis attends specifically to how the three networks sought to build capacity, how differences and similarities between them affected their level of autonomy from governments, and how this and other factors influenced their functioning and achievements.
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