Forest Transitions in Mosaic Landscapes: Smallholder's Flexibility in Land-Resource Use Decisions and Livelihood Strategies From World War II to the Present in the Amazon Estuary

The question of how smallholders of the Amazon estuary, locally known as cabolcos , have adapted their land use systems to produce resources during booms and busts is analyzed in this article. We draw upon more than 50 years of census data and more than 30 years of remotely sensed land-cover data to...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Society & natural resources 2015-10, Vol.28 (10), p.1043-1058
Main Authors: Vogt, Nathan D, Pinedo-Vasquez, Miguel, Brondízio, Eduardo S, Almeida, Oriana, Rivero, Sergio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
adaptation
Adaptation to change
Agricultural production
Amazon
Amazon estuary
census data
climate
Climate change
Decision making
Estuaries
floods
Forest areas
forest transitions
forests
habitat fragmentation
land cover
Land use
land use change
Landscape ecology
landscapes
livelihood
markets
Rain forest
remote sensing
resilience
sea level
Small business
Small farms
social-ecological systems
Sustainability
Transitions
World War II
World War Two
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The question of how smallholders of the Amazon estuary, locally known as cabolcos , have adapted their land use systems to produce resources during booms and busts is analyzed in this article. We draw upon more than 50 years of census data and more than 30 years of remotely sensed land-cover data to reconstruct these dynamics from World War II to the present. We found that smallholders are highly flexible in their land use decisions and livelihood strategies and that such flexibility has helped them to adapt their land-use systems to produce resources in demand during market booms and conserve forests. Smallholder mosaic landscapes contain forest fragments that enhance socioecological resilience to floods and other events produced by changes in the local hydro-climatic regimes due to sea-level rise and other climate-related changes. We argue that flexibility is a tool to reduce livelihood vulnerability by facilitating adaptation to global market and climate driven changes over the long term.
ISSN:1521-0723
0894-1920
1521-0723
DOI:10.1080/08941920.2015.1014603