Abstract ID: 537

The Social Roots of Differential Resource Use in Babassu Palm Secondary Forests in Maranhao, Brazil

The paper discusses the social roots of contrasting land use and production strategies in two peasant communities (PS and SM) in areas covered by secondary forests of babassu palm (Attalea speciosa) in Maranhão. By examining continuities and breakdowns in power and social relations since the establishment of the communities in the 1920s, differences in present land-use can be traced back to the attitudes and the agency of residents when they confronted opportunities and constraints in key moments of the past. Today, the ecology and livelihoods of agro-extractive, shifting cultivator peasants in Maranhão integrate swidden fields for annual cropping, the extraction of babassu-palm products, and pastures for cattle ranching. Since the early 20th century, predominant landscape patterns have been altered from species-rich mature forests to secondary succession with dominance of babassu, to pasture or swidden fields containing palm stands at various densities. The political ecology of resource use in the area suggests that management strategies and the resulting land cover dynamics integrate smallholders’ site-specific decisions with their practical responses in respect to long term processes of social stratification and economic differentiation. Even though families in PS presently own twice as much land on a per capita basis than families in SM, the planning of resource-use targeting long-term utilization is better executed and enforced in the latter, and greater natural resource endowments in PS were not translated into better livelihood conditions. Despite the fact that greater land availability partially explains PS’s lower tendency toward agricultural intensification and resource conservation, socio-cultural and institutional factors specific to each village need to be incorporated in the comparative analysis of resource-use dynamics. The analysis shows that assessments of landscape integrity should include the concept of resilience not only in terms of the natural ecosystem, but also its integration within a socio-natural configuration.

Session:  LCLUC and Human Dimensions - The role of secondary forests in the Amazon.

Presentation Type:  Oral