Examining the sustainability and development challenge in agricultural-forest frontiers of the Amazon Basin through the eyes of locals

Abstract

Abstract. The Amazon basin is the world's largest rainforest and the most biologically diverse place on Earth. Despite the critical importance of this region, Amazon forests continue inexorably to be degraded and deforested for various reasons, mainly a consequence of agricultural expansion. The development of novel policy strategies that provide balanced solutions, associating economic growth with environmental protection, is still challenging, largely because the perspective of those most affected – local stakeholders – is often ignored. Participatory fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) was implemented to examine stakeholder perceptions towards the sustainable development of two agricultural-forest frontier areas in the Bolivian and Brazilian Amazon. A series of development scenarios were explored and applied to stakeholder-derived FCM, with climate change also analysed. Stakeholders in both regions perceived landscapes of socio-economic impoverishment and environmental degradation driven by governmental and institutional deficiencies. Under such abject conditions, governance and well-integrated social and technological strategies offered socio-economic development, environmental conservation, and resilience to climatic changes. The results suggest there are benefits of a new type of thinking for development strategies in the Amazon basin and that continued application of traditional development policies reduces the resilience of the Amazon to climate change, whilst limiting socio-economic development and environmental conservation.

A better Amazon road network for people and the environment

“…However, despite global awareness and multilateral efforts to implement a sustainability agenda (23), developing countries have continued to experience increasing demand for goods and services, degradation of nature and ecosystem services, and deterioration of environmental quality (24). In the Amazon region, the extent to which there is a dichotomy between development objectives and environmental conservation has been central to the political and developmental discourse (25).…”

Transitioning European Protein-Rich Food Consumption and Production towards More Sustainable Patterns—Strategies and Policy Suggestions

“…In these situations, good workshop facilitation is considered essential to clarify items, guide discussions and ensure an appropriate iterative process by looking at both the long and short term [38]. The authors tried to minimize these problems acting as facilitators due to their long experience in organizing, implementing and facilitating stakeholder workshops [61].…”

Protecting the patches from the footprints: examining the land use factors associated with forest patches in Atewa range forest reserve

“…For instance, in the Latin American Amazon, East African, and South Africa forest areas, the land use characteristics are similar to that of ARFR. These forest areas are characterised by activities such as logging, mining, and agricultural activities [24,[64][65][66][67]. Thus, in the light of these human activities, climate change concerns and the findings from our study in the ARFR, forest cover patches in the tropical forests and other forest regions would need protection to preserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable land uses.…”