IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/forpol/v50y2015icp311-318.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Community loggers attempting to legalize traditional timber harvesting in the Brazilian Amazon: An endless path

Author

Listed:
  • Waldhoff, Philippe
  • Vidal, Edson

Abstract

We conducted a case study to analyze the challenges experienced by small loggers in implementing a Community Forest Management (CFM) model demanded by external environmental agencies. The case study was undertaken within traditional communities located in Boa Vista do Ramos County, Amazonas State. With environmental issues surrounding tropical forest becoming increasingly disputed, traditional logging activities performed by locals came to be regarded as illegal. We believe that despite significant efforts to promote CFM initiatives, principally undertaken via public policy, small loggers have in fact had little success adapting to this new legal context. The results demonstrated that when small-scale loggers where supported by specific regulations and some external assistance they were able to collectivize their activities, forming the Community Association of Agricultural and Forest Products Harvesting (ACAF). After meeting challenges to strengthen their technical, social and managerial aspects, ACAF obtained environmental licenses and forest certification. However subsequent changes in forest policies lead to the termination of CFM-oriented regulations and ACAF weakened. Nevertheless, the social and human capital that had been developed in the collective ended up being successfully applied to other individual small-scale projects in the same region. We conclude that despite the community loggers' success in establishing a new and more sustainable way of working, they were not able to continue these activities within this new legal environment. The policies and laws that apply to CFM are more oriented to conservation goals than to meeting the demands of producers and contributing to their livelihoods.

Suggested Citation

  • Waldhoff, Philippe & Vidal, Edson, 2015. "Community loggers attempting to legalize traditional timber harvesting in the Brazilian Amazon: An endless path," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 311-318.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:50:y:2015:i:c:p:311-318
    DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2014.08.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934114001725
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.forpol.2014.08.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sunderlin, William D., 2006. "Poverty alleviation through community forestry in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam: An assessment of the potential," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 386-396, June.
    2. Mrosek, Thorsten & Balsillie, David & Schleifenbaum, Peter, 2006. "Field testing of a criteria and indicators system for sustainable forest management at the local level. Case study results concerning the sustainability of the private forest Haliburton Forest and Wil," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(6), pages 593-609, August.
    3. Fearnside, Philip M., 2003. "Conservation Policy in Brazilian Amazonia: Understanding the Dilemmas," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 757-779, May.
    4. Humphries, Shoana & Holmes, Thomas P. & Kainer, Karen & Koury, Carlos Gabriel Gonçalves & Cruz, Edson & de Miranda Rocha, Rosana, 2012. "Are community-based forest enterprises in the tropics financially viable? Case studies from the Brazilian Amazon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 62-73.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elizângela Silva Luz & Álvaro Augusto Vieira Soares & Selma Lopes Goulart & Amélia Guimarães Carvalho & Thiago Campos Monteiro & Thiago Paula Protásio, 2021. "Challenges of the lumber production in the Amazon region: relation between sustainability of sawmills, process yield and logs quality," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 4924-4948, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Clare, Stephen M. & Ruiz-Jaen, Maria C. & Hickey, Gordon M., 2019. "Assessing the potential of community-based forestry programs in Panama," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 81-92.
    2. Qun Liu & Zhaoping Yang & Fang Wang, 2017. "Conservation Policy-Community Conflicts: A Case Study from Bogda Nature Reserve, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-15, July.
    3. Duchelle, Amy E. & Almeyda Zambrano, Angélica M. & Wunder, Sven & Börner, Jan & Kainer, Karen A., 2014. "Smallholder Specialization Strategies along the Forest Transition Curve in Southwestern Amazonia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(S1), pages 149-158.
    4. Starfinger, Marcel, 2021. "Financing smallholder tree planting: Tree collateral & Thai ‘Tree Banks’ - Collateral 2.0?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    5. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2022. "Rubber In French Indochina," OSF Preprints yzdp6, Center for Open Science.
    6. Trejos, Bernardo & Flores, Juan Carlos, 2021. "Influence of property rights on performance of community-based forest devolution policies in Honduras," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    7. Lucungu, Prince Baraka & Dhital, Narayan & Asselin, Hugo & Kibambe, Jean-Paul & Ngabinzeke, Jean Semeki & Khasa, Damase P., 2022. "Local perception and attitude toward community forest concessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    8. Carvalho Ribeiro, Sónia M. & Soares Filho, Britaldo & Leles Costa, William & Bachi, Laura & Ribeiro de Oliveira, Amanda & Bilotta, Patricia & Saadi, Allaoua & Lopes, Elaine & O'Riordan, Tim & Lôbo Pen, 2018. "Can multifunctional livelihoods including recreational ecosystem services (RES) and non timber forest products (NTFP) maintain biodiverse forests in the Brazilian Amazon?," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(PC), pages 517-526.
    9. Macqueen, Duncan & Bolin, Anna & Greijmans, Martin & Grouwels, Sophie & Humphries, Shoana, 2020. "Innovations towards prosperity emerging in locally controlled forest business models and prospects for scaling up," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    10. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2022. "Market Formation In Tbong Khmum," OSF Preprints jg5qz, Center for Open Science.
    11. Araujo, Claudio & Bonjean, Catherine Araujo & Combes, Jean-Louis & Combes Motel, Pascale & Reis, Eustaquio J., 2009. "Property rights and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(8-9), pages 2461-2468, June.
    12. Persson, Joel & Prowse, Martin, 2017. "Collective action on forest governance: An institutional analysis of the Cambodian community forest system," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 70-79.
    13. Puppim de Oliveira, Jose Antonio, 2008. "Property rights, land conflicts and deforestation in the Eastern Amazon," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(5), pages 303-315, April.
    14. Keijiro Otsuka & Ridish Pokharel, 2014. "In search of appropriate institutions for forest management," GRIPS Discussion Papers 13-25, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
    15. Sanchez Badini, Olivia & Hajjar, Reem & Kozak, Robert, 2018. "Critical success factors for small and medium forest enterprises: A review," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 35-45.
    16. Lähtinen, Katja & Myllyviita, Tanja & Leskinen, Pekka & Pitkänen, Sari K., 2014. "A systematic literature review on indicators to assess local sustainability of forest energy production," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1202-1216.
    17. Pailler, Sharon, 2018. "Re-election incentives and deforestation cycles in the Brazilian Amazon," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 345-365.
    18. Nhem, Sareth & Lee, Young Jin, 2019. "Using Q methodology to investigate the views of local experts on the sustainability of community-based forestry in Oddar Meanchey province, Cambodia," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 1-1.
    19. Thi-Thu Vu & Yuan Shen, 2021. "Land-Use and Land-Cover Changes in Dong Trieu District, Vietnam, during Past Two Decades and Their Driving Forces," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-13, July.
    20. Viteri-Salazar, Oswaldo & Toledo, Lucía, 2020. "The expansion of the agricultural frontier in the northern Amazon region of Ecuador, 2000–2011: Process, causes, and impact," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:50:y:2015:i:c:p:311-318. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/forpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.