Ecology and culture: "development" and deforestation in Amazonia

1
Ecology and culture "development" and
deforestation in Amazonia

• 03.03.2004

2
Readings

• Moran (1993) Human Ecology as a Critique of
  Development. (in Through Amazonian Eyes The
  Human Ecology of Amazonian Populations)
• Ozorio de Almeida (1992) The Decade of
  Colonization. (in The Colonization of the Amazon)

3
Topics

• Statistics and background
• Definitions of Amazonia
• Biological and social implications of
  development
• Factors/agents of development
• Presentations
• Video The Kayapo Out of the Forest

4
Definitions of Amazonia

• Socio-cultural /anthropological
• Culture area
• Lowland vs Highland cultures
• Hydrographic
• Drainage basin or the Amazon Valley
• 6 million square kilometres
• Biological
• Rainforest habitat
• highest diversity of plant species on earth
• 438,000 species of plants
• one hectare - 750 types of trees and 1500 species
  of higher plants
• 20 of worlds birds
• Political-economic
• Legal Amazonia (used in Brazil)
• includes large areas of Brazilian Plateau
• for taxation/administrative purposes

5
Development

• 16, 17th century
• little ecological impact
• 18th, 19th century
• Rubber boom
• 1960s
• Logging
• Agricultural clearance
• Clearance due to construction of highways
• Flooding due to dams

6
Biological implications of development I

• Deforestation
• Rainforests used to cover 14 of the Earth's
  surface
• gt 6 now
• disappear within 40 years at the present rate of
  logging
• 1/5 of Amazon rain forest already destroyed
• Pace
• Constantly increasing
• 20,000 square miles a year
• 15 hectares per minute
• 0.5-0.8 ha (1.5-2 acres) of rainforest disappear
  each second

7
(No Transcript)
8
Biological implications of development II

• Loss of species
• 50,000 a year
• Pace of species loss 500 times the rate of
  natural species appearance
• Global warming
• Especially - deforestation by burning (CO2)
• Biopiracy
• unauthorised use of biological resources
• unauthorised use of traditional communities'
  knowledge on biological resources
• unequal share of benefits

9
Economic implications

• Potential earnings from one hectare in the Amazon
  per year
• Standing forest
• 6,820 per year (latex, fruits, sustainably
  harvested timber)
• Cut-down forest
• 1,000 (commercial timber)
• 148 ( cattle pasture)

10
Social implications of development

• Constant decrease of indigenous population
• 1500 5 million
• 1600 1 million
• epidemics
• Measles, influenza, tuberculosis and malaria
• the same in the 1960s
• Eg. Yanomamös, Surui
• 1940 - 500 000
• 1960 - 100 000
• Predictions that by the end of the 20th century -
  extinct
• 88 ethnic groups disappeared 1900-1960
• Now - 220 groups with 230,000 people
• Rapid population growth among some groups
• Eg Surui and Kayapo

11
Presentations

• Hemming, J. 1987. Amazon Frontier The Defeat of
  the Brazilian Indians. London Macmillan. (Parts
  3 and 4)
• Hecht, S., and A. Cockburn 1989. The Fate of the
  Forest Developers and Defenders of the Amazon.
  London Verso.

12
External agents I non-state actors

• 16/17th centuries
• Explorers
• Francisco de Orellana
• First to navigate the Amazon in 1541
• Missionaries
• Jesuits
• 18th century
• Early scientists
• Charles Marie de la Condamine
• Fusee Aublet
• the genus Hevea - source of rubber
• Rubber boom
• 19th century
• Rubber boom
• Scientific explorations
• Alfred Russel Wallace

13
External agents II non-state actors

• 20th century
• Anthropologists
• Napoleon Chagnon etc
• Garimpeiros goldwashers
• search of El Dorado / gold rush
• 1993 the Haximú massacre (yanomamös)
• Loggers
• Seringueiros Rubber tappers
• Chico Mendes
• foundation of the National Counsel of the
  Seringueiros
• proposal of the extraction reserves
• Murdered in 1988

14
External agents III state projects

• 20th century
• 1970s - Plan of National Integration
• Construction of highways
• Belém-Brasilia Highway (E-W)
• Cuiabá-Santarém Highway (N-S)
• Transamazonica (E-W)
• Hydro-electric power plants
• Resettlement programs
• clearing land for agriculture
• gt Deforestation and relocation of tribes

15
External agents IV - Protection groups

• SPI - Indian Protection Service (1910)
• By Cândido Rondon
• Assurance of citizenship rights
• Abolished in 1967
• due to corruption and explotiation of Indians
• gt FUNAI (1967)
• a failure
• Xingu Indian Reserve (1961)
• Villas Boas Brothers (Orlando and Claudio)
• Various NGOs
• Eg. The Rainforest Foundation (Sting)
• Indian organizations
• Eg. the Kayapo

16
Video The Kayapo Out of the Forest

• By Terence Turner (1990)
• 1988
• Proposal to build a dam on Xingu river
• 1989
• Kayapo protest in Altamira
• Led by Paulinho Paiakan
• World Bank loan cancelled
• Dam project cancelled
• Current situation
• New proposal submitted