This paper describes smallholder agricultural systems in the lower Amazon where the Santarém sub-Cluster is based. Here, despite the fertility of floodplain soils and a long tradition of floodplain farming, smallholder agriculture is stagnating. Once the basis of the floodplain economy, its role in smallholder subsistence has now been taken over by commercial fishing and extensive cattle ranching.
Commodity production in Brazil, it is not (all) about deforestation: combining zero deforestation and zero illegality
Commodity production in Brazil, it is not (all) about deforestation: combining zero deforestation and zero illegality
In the last eight years, we have seen a drastic reduction in deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon. The annual deforestation rate in 2014 (484.8 thousand ha) was 75% lower than the historical average between 1996 and 2005 (1.95 million ha). This reduction has...