Forest farmers: Human and landscape ecology of caboclo populations in the Amazon estuary.

摘要

This study is about agriculture intensification and food production systems in the Amazon estuary, and their historical, socio-economical and environmental dimensions. Different land use and agricultural strategies are compared, but special attention is given to floodplain agroforestry, primarily Acai agroforestry (Euterpe oleracea). Acai fruit is a top-ranked staple food, and its production system is the main economic activity for a large number of estuarine towns. This study discusses the application of agricultural intensification measures to agroforestry production systems, such as the case of acai Intensification of acai agroforestry is studied in terms of management levels, production and productivity, and market, and compared to other crops in terms of its land use impact. The work is based on the integration of interdisciplinary and multi-level research methods that combines multi-temporal remote sensing (Landsat TM satellite images), detail vegetation and agricultural field studies, socioeconomic assessment, and ethnographic interviews to provide a nested data set that can be scaled upwards and downwards between local and regional scales. The role of land tenure, technology, and market is assessed in order to provide a fine grain analysis of the production systems, the dynamics of human impact on the landscape, and their adaptation to features of it. Acai agroforestry based on locally developed technology presents an outstanding example of intensification of food production in the region without displacement of local populations, without deforestation, without constraining diversification of land use, and without destruction of the resource basis, providing at the same time the most important source of income for local populations. In the light of the intensification of floodplain agroforestry systems and the role they play in regional agriculture, this study aims to contribute to constructing an identity for rural producers, shifting to a paradigm that moves from viewing caboclos as extractivists to seeing them as forest farmers.