This paper reviews the literature on the links between migration and forests in the Peruvian Amazon. It highlights not only the complexity of the migrant–forest interface in Peru but also the relative lack of research on these dynamics. Historically, offi

This paper reviews the literature on the links between migration and forests in the Peruvian Amazon. It highlights not only the complexity of the migrant–forest interface in Peru but also the relative lack of research on these dynamics. Historically, offi

This working paper uses remote sensing data and methods to characterize land cover change in four sites in the lowland Peruvian Amazon over a period of three decades (1987-2017). Multi-village landscapes were purposefully selected to include road accessible sites and others only accessible by river. Landscape analysis focused on buffers around the selected villages used to approximate the areas of influence of farmers in these communities. Deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon has been commonly attributed to agriculture expansion by smallholders. This belief falls short in acknowledging that the contribution of smallholder deforestation is mediated by others decisions around infrastructure development. In this analysis, road connected landscapes experienced greater loss of closed-canopy forest while closed canopy forest remained mostly stable in the river sites over the thirty year study period. Results indicated that closed canopy forest loss occurred in parallel with agricultural expansion at the road sites. The findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of local land use dynamics and the role of regional infrastructure development as a driver of forest loss.

Contrary to ingrained academic and public assumptions, wherein indigenous lowland South American societies are viewed as the product of historical emplacement and spatial stasis, there is widespread evidence to suggest that migration and displacement have been the norm, and not the exception. This original and thought-provoking collection of case studies examines some of the ways in which migration, and the concomitant processes of ecological and social change, have shaped and continue to shape human-environment relations in Amazonia. Drawing on a wide range of historical time frames (from pre-conquest times to the present) and ethnographic contexts, different chapters examine the complex and important links between migration and the classification, management, and domestication of plants and landscapes, as well as the incorporation and transformation of environmental knowledge, practices, ideologies and identities.

The Amazonia is the largest continuous river basin and rainforest ecosystem in the world. In all aspects it is a natural wonder, and the rainforest with its billions of trees is a vital carbon store that slows down the advance of global warming. It is home to one million indigenous people and some three million species of plants and animals. There have been many climate fluctuations during the last 55 million years of its existence, but never before have “the lungs of the world” been at greater risk than they are today due to uncontrolled fires, expanding agriculture and heavy industrial development in the forms of oil drilling, mining and large hydroelectric dams. Over twelve chapters, this book describes the anthropological, biological and industrial problems facing the Amazonia, and seeks to find new solutions.

Natural resources often stretch across borders that separate modern nation states. This can create conflict and limit opportunities for regulated consumption of their goods and services, but also provide opportunities for joint multinational efforts that exceed single country capabilities. This book illustrates the diversity of transborder natural resources, the pressures that they experience or the opportunities that exist for multinational regulatory regimes, monitoring and enforcement. It presents ten case studies of transborder natural resources that are of interest to two or more neighboring countries, and that are subject to, or in need of bilateral or multinational coordinated management. The case studies include the exploitation of specific marine resources in international waters, rivers that travel through several countries and contiguous tropical forests across national borders, and where commodities, nature conservation or even territorial integrity are at stake. They are drawn from across the globe, including flood management in Western Europe, tropical forests in the Western Amazon, hydropower development in the Mekong region of South-east Asia, forest conservation in Central Africa and marine resource and fisheries exploitation in the waters of Japan, South-east Asia and Australia. Together the chapters provide a review of a wide range of transborder natural resource examples, and the diverse regulatory regimes that need to be devised to achieve successful management. An introductory chapter provides a conceptual and theoretical underpinning that can guide future research efforts on similar cases and a concluding chapter draws major conclusions and implications for related concepts and theories.

Migration is not new. In recent decades however, human mobility has increased in numbers and scope and has helped fuel a global shift in the human population from predominantly rural to urban. Migration overall is a livelihood, investment and resilience strategy. It is affected by changes across multiple sectors and at varying scales and is affected by macro policies, transnational networks, regional conditions, local demands, political and social relations, household options and individual desires. Such enhanced mobility, changes in populations and communities in both sending and receiving areas, and the remittances that mobility generates, are key elements of current transitions that have both direct and indirect consequences for forests. Because migration processes engage with rural populations and spaces in the tropics, they inevitably affect forest resources through changes in use and management. Yet links between forests and migration have been overlooked too often in the literature on migration as well as in discussions about forest-based livelihoods. With a focus on landscapes that include tropical forests, this paper explores trends and diversities in the ways in which migration, urbanization and personal remittances affect rural livelihoods and forests.

This country profile contains an analysis of the causes of deforestation and forest degradation in Peru, and the economic, institutional and political context in which REDD is emerging in the country. Peru has a total forest area of approximately 73 million hectares, almost 60% of national territory. In the past few years, deforestation decreased from 150,000 ha/year to 106,000 ha/year but it still represents one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the country. While it has decreased recently, an increase is expected during coming years due to development policies that support the expansion of road infrastructure in the Amazon, an increase in agricultural production and support for the extractive sectors. The government has declared a goal of reducing to zero the deforestation rate across 54 million hectares of primary forest by 2021, and has initiated the preparation process for REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus) at a national and subnational level. While the pilot projects are already underway, with international and national funding, and even certification according to international standards, the national government is still in the process of developing REDD+ and MRV (Measuring, Reporting and Verification) strategies under the leadership of MINAM. Even if REDD has solid support within certain sectors of the government and civil society, it will face big challenges during the implementation phase due to a lack of intersectoral coordination and support to a socioeconomic development that would stimulate conservation and stop deforestation and degradation. In the process of preparation for REDD+, the country has advanced with the processes of safeguarding the participation of the civil society and the protection of native and local communities’ rights. At the same time, the challenges concerning weak governance at a national and regional level and conflicts of interest are threats to the effective, efficient and equitable implementation in the long-term.

Forests are in decline, and the threats these outposts of nature face—including deforestation, degradation, and fragmentation—are the result of human culture. Or are they? This volume calls these assumptions into question, revealing forests’ past, present, and future conditions to be the joint products of a host of natural and cultural forces. Moreover, in many cases the coalescence of these forces—from local ecologies to competing knowledge systems—has masked a significant contemporary trend of woodland resurgence, even in the forests of the tropics. Focusing on the history and current use of woodlands from India to the Amazon, The Social Lives of Forests attempts to build a coherent view of forests sited at the nexus of nature, culture, and development. With chapters covering the effects of human activities on succession patterns in now-protected Costa Rican forests; the intersection of gender and knowledge in African shea nut tree markets; and even the unexpectedly rich urban woodlands of Chicago, this book explores forests as places of significant human action, with complex institutions, ecologies, and economies that have transformed these landscapes in the past and continue to shape them today. From rain forests to timber farms, the face of forests—how we define, understand, and maintain them—is changing.

Looks at the depiction of tropical rain forests in movies and art, discusses government policy, business exploitation, and the future of the rain forest, and describes the lives of forest people in South America, Africa, and Asia