Infrastructure, Regional Development and Livestock in the state of Para, Brazilian Amazon
Benoit
Mertens, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), benoit.mertens@cgiar.org
(Presenting)
Forest conversions in the Amazon are mostly located in frontier areas along the so-called Arc of deforestation. Within this large zone, various land use change processes are interacting through several modes of land valorisation and organization. The current project aims to examine (i) the spatial and temporal variability regarding incentives and disincentives to convert forests for agricultural uses and (ii) how did contrasted biophysical and socio-economic conditions affect current and future land use and development trajectories, with a particular emphasis on the role of roads.
From case studies in the state of Pará, the project has analyzed how landscape dynamics are related to infrastructure development, ecological conditions, land policies, and to the evolution and the organization of the production, consumption and marketing chains of livestock products. This study has drawn on complementary datasets, socio-economic census, key-informants interviews and satellite remote sensing imagery, linked with geo-referenced information on human and biophysical conditions. These data were integrated in a GIS, and the analyses were supported quantitatively by using spatial econometric modelling approaches and landscape ecology tools.
The land use change analyses in the regions showed quite distinct results with regards to colonization history, deforestation patterns and associated factors. Spatial statistical models have highlighted the fact that explanatory variables, such as the access to markets or the proximity from the roads influence deforestation in different ways depending on the stage of development of the frontier area and the type of producers considered. Such results can further support prospective analyses.
Submetido por Benoit Mertens em 18-MAR-2004
Tema Científico do LBA: LC (Mudanças dos Usos da Terra e da Vegetação)