Smallholder Forestry in the Western Amazon: Outcomes from Forest Reforms and Emerging Policy Perspectives

Abstract

Abstract:The forest reforms unfolding during the last two decades in the western Amazon have embraced policy regimes founded on the principles of sustainable forest management. The policy frameworks adopted for smallholder forestry aimed to clarify forest rights including those of the indigenous people and smallholders, support the adoption of sustainable forest management and put a system in place to assure a legal timber supply. The emerging forest policy regimes have significantly shaped who has access to the forest, how the forest resources are used and the benefits that are utilized. We argue that forest reforms have not addressed some critical constraints facing smallholders in managing their forests either individually or collectively. Informal timber extraction persists with contradictory effects on smallholders and forests. Local participants continue to make a significant contribution in meeting a growing demand for timber through vigorous market networks that combine legal and illegal sources of timber supply. Some recent changes to forest policy frameworks emphasize approaches towards additional integrated forest management, simplification of regulations and incentives for improved forest management. We critically reflect on the scope, implementation and expected outcomes of these policy frameworks.

Revisiting the ‘cornerstone of Amazonian conservation’: a socioecological assessment of Brazil nut exploitation

“…To this end, the design and implementation of flexible and integrated frameworks adapted to the realities of smallholders, along with suitable extension and financial services are paramount. Peru seems to rely more on command-and-control policies and regulations for smallholder forestry compared, for example, to Bolivia (Pacheco et al 2016).…”

“…Although the growth of these cooperatives has been fundamental for linking Brazil nut harvesters to global markets, Peruvian harvesters on the contrary largely suffer from lack of social cohesiveness and knowledge exchange among various produceŕs associations thus hampering progress toward equity and enhanced market access (Quaedvlieg et al 2014). And, as for most Amazonian rural populations (Mathews and Schmink 2015), informal financing in the Brazil nut sector is the norm since access to formal microcredit is largely nonexistent (Cronkleton and Pacheco 2010;Perales and Guariguata 2015) as well as for Amazonian smallholder forestry operations as a whole (Pacheco et al 2016).…”

Multiple Patterns of Forest Disturbance and Logging Shape Forest Landscapes in Paragominas, Brazil

“…Logging can vary from very low intensity (1 to 2 trees·ha −1 ) with few impacts, to more intensive and repeated logging, often occurring with ground fire [11]. Moreover, within the same forest landscape, logging concerns multiple actors and different areas of forest management are being juxtaposed, such as areas of forestry companies, forest concessions (currently only in five National Forests), but also areas in private and community-owned forests, for example in Legal Forest Reserve (Reserva Legal) of big farm (fazenda) or smallholder areas (assentamento) [12,13]. For these reasons, logged forests must be characterized by a disturbance gradient bound to (1) intensity of logging; (2) frequency of logging activities through time; and (3) forest management techniques (i.e., conventional management (CNV), Reduced Impact Logging (RIL), or no management techniques in case of illegal logging).…”

Incentives and Constraints of Community and Smallholder Forestry

“…Three of the papers [9][10][11] review wider forestry reforms in Western Amazonia, mainland Southeast Asia, and the Philippines, and associated implications for smallholders and communities undertaking forest management. Two of the papers [12,13] review several decades of experiences from community forest management in Quintana Roo and Mozambique, and explore how regulatory, economic, and social factors have shaped community forestry initiatives, and the capacities of communities to adapt to changing regulatory, policy, and market environments.…”