Sustainable management of an Amazonian forest for timber production: a myth or reality?

Land use transformation in the mountainous mainland Southeast Asia region and the role of indigenous knowledge and skills in forest management

“…More often, new solutions need to be incorporated into the whole portfolio of local farming and land management (Gupta, 1998). By incorporating some modern timber technology into their local land use and forest management practices, small farmers in the Brazilian Amazon have been able to control an epidemic of banana disease as well as to increase their income from timber production (Pinedo-Vasquez and Rabelo, 2002). Attention to management aspects, as we have shown in this paper, could help to make indigenous technology more widely applicable.…”

Mixed potential for sustainable forest use in the tidal floodplain of the Amazon River

“…Although palm forest areas have expanded in and around Mazagão during the same period, today the diversity of livelihood strategies in Mazagão reflect the potential for multiple forest uses including many family-run sawmills. The relatively high potential for timber management in Mazagão also is reflected in recent descriptions of sustainable management of tidal floodplain forests of Mazagão, despite the past intensive logging boom that strongly impacted local forests from 1950 to 1980s Pinedo-Vasquez and Rabelo, 2002;Sears and PinedoVasquez, 2004). Mazagão has a recent logging history that dates back to the beginning of the 19th century when steam ships would purchase high-valued species for export, through the logging boom of the 1950-1990s, through the current thriving smallholder-dominated industry in Mazagão.…”

Amazon Forestry Tranformed: Integrating Knowledge for Smallholder Timber Managemet in Eastern Brazil

“…Individuals of commercial size of the several dozen economically important timber species were found in all these land use types, but while forests contain the highest density (Pinedo-Vasquez et al 2001), the majority of individuals of commercial size of the high-value timber species that were once featured during the timber boom are now found only in house gardens (Pinedo-Vasquez and Rabelo 2002). This pattern indicates the depletion of these resources,in fact their commercial extinction in forests and fallows.…”

“…Local farmers know the distribution and inventory of trees on their lands, the wood characteristics and uses of many species, and the growth conditions they require. In fact, producers in the region have adapted their flexible systems of resource management, as described above and by Pinedo-Vasquez and Rabelo (2002) and Sears and PinedoVasquez (2004), to the local market opportunities of "posttimber-boom" Amazonia by increasingly integrating wood production into their existing production systems. Our results from a study of the household economy during , reported in Pinedo-Vasquez et al (2001, indicates that producers sold a diversity of products, from pole timber for construction infrastructure to rough boards and larger pieces for furniture making.…”