Actor and frontier types in the Brazilian Amazon: Assessing interactions and outcomes associated with frontier expansion

This paper analyzes frontier expansion in the Brazilian Amazon as a process that depends on multiple exogenous and endogenous factors operating at diverse scales, but whose trajectory depends on the dominant actor type (smallholders or medium- or large-scale landholders) occupying the frontier landscape. Despite the broad growing trend of pasture expansion for adoption of cattle ranching as the main land use associated with frontier expansion, some differences persist across actor types. In relative terms, medium- and large-scale landholders place most of their cleared forestland under pasture, and in absolute terms, largeholders have deforested more than smallholders because they hold larger tracts of land. Recently, however, deforestation activity has been increasing in frontiers occupied by smallholders who tend to convert a greater proportion of the forestland in their landholdings to agricultural land uses than larger-scale landholders, mainly to expand cattle ranching operations. Furthermore, smallholders tend to maintain higher cattle stocking rates than medium- and large-scale landholders, which tend to adopt extensive systems of cattle production. Both economic and human development indices in each frontier type vary according to actor type. While in absolute terms, higher per capita agricultural income levels are found in frontiers where largeholders predominate, the corresponding incomes are higher in smallholder frontiers when prorated by unit of land under crops and pasture. In addition, the Human Development Index is higher in frontiers with greater presence of large-scale landholdings.     

Cows versus rubber: Changing livelihoods among Amazonian extractivists

The livelihood strategies of former rubber tappers in the Amazon region are rapidly shifting from extraction of non-timber forest products to mixed systems based on agriculture and small scale cattle ranching. Using a combination of participatory methods and Geographical Information Systems, a case study in western Acre, Brazil explores how rubber tapper livelihood strategies may be changing, and the implications of these changes for land use and forest cover. Field (cattle pasture and agriculture) expansion and the decline of forest extractivism present challenges to many regional conservation and development projects such as sustainable settlement projects and extractive reserves seeking to develop forest-based livelihood alternatives to limit deforestation. Sustainability goals require researchers and policy makers to address the still experimental status of these forest-based organizational units, the heterogeneity and dynamism of extractivist livelihoods, and the necessary importance of small-scale cattle ranching for insurance and income generation among many former and current extractivists.     

Water and the entrepreneurial city: The territorial expansion of public utility companies from Colombia and the Netherlands

Since the mid-1980s, liberalization has motivated numerous water supply reforms. Among these, privatization has received the most attention. Yet, its actual scope has been limited. Beyond privatization, the territorial expansion of municipally owned water corporations into new service areas can be witnessed in countries as diverse as Italy, South Africa, Canada, Colombia and the Netherlands. Generally, the activities of public water corporations are analyzed through the lens of commercialization. This framework is central to understanding recent shifts in water supply. Yet, while it addresses the effects of commercialization on service quality and access, it rarely integrates the influence of shifts in social reproduction and collective consumption in structuring reform. Drawing on theories of urban entrepreneurialism, I attempt to advance a broader analytical framework that is more amenable to integrating the diversity of processes involved, including but not limited to commercialization. At the same time, the territorial expansion of municipally owned water corporations suggests ways to rethink urban entrepreneurialism: it is not only commercial, it is also social, and it is Schumpeterian. To make these points, this article examines the efforts of two public water corporations to go international: EPM of Medellín, Colombia and WMD of Drenthe, the Netherlands.     

Rubber tapper identities: Political-economic dynamics,livelihood shifts,and environmental implications in a changing Amazon

Rubber tappers promoted extractive reserves as a sustainable alternative to forest destruction in the Brazilian Amazon. However, the significance of rubber tapping itself has declined since the creation of extractive reserves, which raises questions about the contemporary cultural content of the rubber tapper identity. This paper therefore evaluates rubber tapper identity, using the case of the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve (CMER) in Acre, Brazil. We first draw on household survey data from the CMER to construct a statistical model of who self-identifies as a rubber tapper. The model shows that socio-economic background, household assets, institutional context, and knowledge of the CMER’s management plan are relevant to understanding rubber tapper self-identification, but not resource management practices, including rubber tapping itself. We therefore pursue qualitative analysis of key informant interviews to better apprehend contemporary understandings of the “rubber tapper” identity, particularly in light of recent shifts in livelihoods from rubber tapping toward cattle ranching. The qualitative analysis shows that there are now several different foundations for self-identifying as a “rubber tapper,” and that there are disagreements concerning the acceptability of cattle ranching among “rubber tappers.” These findings bear implications for research on the relationship of livelihood-based identities with resource management practices and environmental change, as well as public policies that seek to reconcile regional development with forest conservation.     

Relationship between geomorphology and contamination with weathered hydrocarbons in an old river levee/marsh association

A site evaluation was made for a low-lying property in an old river levee/marsh association, used marginally for cattle raising, which was contaminated due to historical practices. Contamination was related to geomorphology: the lowest areas contained 79 % of the contaminated samples. Other contaminated samples were all rear access roads (probable intentional dumping). There were no samples in the higher, levee areas away from roads with hydrocarbon concentrations above 3,000 mg/kg. Medium and high impact levels, corresponding to average hydrocarbon concentrations of 13,400 mg/kg and 109,700 mg/kg, respectively, were found in 28 % and 27 % of the property area. The medium impact level was predicted to have a reduced pasture production potential of ～ 50 % while at the high impact level practically no pasture production was predicted. Toxicological risk to cattle is present in only 12 % of the sample points although almost all of these are in very marshy areas not apt for cattle raising. Because the hydrocarbons at this tropical site are very weathered, acute toxicity was not related to hydrocarbon concentration. Although slightly more than half of the property has hydrocarbon concentrations above the permissible limit, only about one-third of the contaminated area is apt for cattle raising. This study, based on hydrocarbon distribution related to site geomorphology, soil toxicity bioassay, risk assessment to cattle and evaluation of pasture production allowed to made a more accurate assessment and definition of future use of the site. These criteria could be used for diagnostic studies of sites with similar tropical conditions.     

Are livestock a troublesome commodity?

Rather than making a uniform case for understanding the neoliberalization of ranching and pastoralism, the articles in this volume show how everyday practices are made through historically and geographically specific struggles over the characteristics of production, exchange and rule, in which livestock play a particularly important role. Collectively, I believe the articles in this volume highlight the significant relationship between cattle and capitalism, and make a compelling argument that to understand the material implications of neoliberalism we need to pay more attention to livestock as an important and rapidly changing medium of livelihood production and accumulation strategy around the world.     

The radical geopolitics of US foreign policy: the 2003 Iraq War

This article presents an approach termed “radical geopolitics” that addresses two of critical geopolitics’ blind spots, namely, its lack of attention to the causes (the “why”) of policy and its neglect of political economy. In particular, it examines the respective roles of the geopolitical and geoeconomic factors that drive policy. The argument draws on David Harvey’s “logics of power,” modified and reformulated into a “geoeconomic logic” and a “geopolitical logic” through which postwar American foreign policy may be interpreted. The former logic arises out of capitalism’s tendency to expand geographically and the latter out of politicians’ need to maintain credibility internationally as well as from electoral pressures at home. A discussion of the Iraq War illustrates the approach and illuminates issues overlooked by critical geopolitics analyses, in particular: Why did the US invade Iraq in 2003? And what was the role of oil, if any, in motivating the invasion? It is argued that Iraq was invaded to control its oil (but much less to use it for US consumption, and still much less to generate profits from it), and to maintain American credibility. Radical geopolitics should not be seen in opposition to critical geopolitics, but rather as seeking to supplement its analyses through discussion of issues which have received less attention.     

Ranching and the new global range: Amazônia in the 21st century

This paper seeks to understand how the Brazilian Amazon, which many thought unsuitable for agricultural development, has yielded to a dynamic cattle economy in only a few decades. It does so by embedding the Thunian model of location rents within the regime of capital accumulation that has driven the Brazilian economy since the mid-20th century. The paper addresses policies that have created location rents in Amazônia, the effect of these rents on land managers, and the spatial implications of their behavior on forests. Thus, the paper connects macro-processes and structures to agents on the ground, in providing a political ecological explanation relevant to land change science. The policy discussion focuses on reductions in transportation costs, improvements in animal health, and monetary and trade reforms. To illustrate the impact of policy, the paper presents data on the geography of Amazonian herd expansion, on the growth of Amazonian exports, and on the profitability of the region’s cattle economy. It follows the empirical presentation with more abstract consideration of the spatial relations between cattle ranching and soy farming, and implications for deforestation. The paper concludes on a speculative note by considering the likelihood of forest transition in the region, given the transformation of Amazônia into a global resource frontier.     

Land, ethnic, and gender change: Transnational migration and its effects on Guatemalan lives and landscapes

Migration to the United States of America from Guatemala effects many aspects of Guatemalan life. We document, through extensive ethnographic fieldwork, how migrants and their remittances effect gender relations, ethnicity, land use, and land distribution. Our evidence is drawn from research in four communities. San Pedro Pinula and Gualán represent communities of eastern Guatemala. San Cristóbal Totonicapán is an Indigenous town in Guatemala’s western highlands, and San Lucas is a lowland frontier community in the Guatemalan department of Ixcán, which borders Chiapas, Mexico. Our results reveal that migrants and their remittances, both social and tangible, result in significant changes in land use and land distribution in Ixcán. Migrant money permits the conversion of rainforest into cattle pasture and also results in the accumulation of land in the hands of migrants. In terms of land use, we see in San Pedro Pinula that migrant money also allows the Pokoman Maya to make small entries into the Ladino (non-indigenous) dominated cattle business. In San Pedro Pinula, the migration and return of Maya residents also permits them to slowly challenge ethnic roles that have developed over the last five centuries. When we look at how migration effects gender roles in Gualán and San Cristóbal we also note that migration and social remittances permit a gradual challenge and erosion of traditional gender roles in Guatemala. We point out, however, that migration-related changes to traditional gender and ethnic roles is gradual because migrants, despite their increased earnings and awareness, run into a social structure that resists rapid change. This is not the case when we examine land transformations in Ixcán. Here, migrants encounter few barriers when they attempt to put their new money and ideas to work. Despite the advantages that migration brings to many families, especially in the face of a faltering national economy and state inactivity regarding national development, we conclude that migration and remittances do not result in community or nation-wide development. At this stage migrant remittances are used for personal advancement and very little money and effort is invested in works that benefit communities or neighborhoods. We call for continued studies of the effects of international migration on Guatemalan hometowns that build on our initial studies to better understand the longer-term ramifications of migration in a country where no community is without migrants.     

Effect of improved tidal flushing and competitive interactions at the boundary between salt marsh and pasture

Zonation of salt marsh plants has been widely recognized and studied, but the boundary between salt marsh and adjacent upland plants has seldom been considered. Three hypotheses about the boundary between salt marsh and adjacent upland pasture were tested on Kooragang Island, New South Wales, Australia. First, we hypothesized that increased tidal range resulting from removal of culverts that restricted tidal flow to areas of salt marsh would lead to landward spread of salt marsh into areas previously dominated by pasture. Monitoring results showed an increase in areal cover by salt marsh plants and a decrease in pasture plants along the boundary between salt marsh and pasture in areas affected by culvert removal, while no change could be detected at a reference site unaffected by culvert removal. Second, we hypothesized that the down-gradient distribution of the pasture species Stenotaphrum secundatum (buffalo grass) was restricted by physical conditions, while the up-gradient distribution of the salt marsh species Sarcocornia quinqueflora (samphire) was restricted by competition with pasture species. Results of a reciprocal transplant experiment were consistent with this hypothesis. Third, we hypothesized that the rate of salt marsh spread following culvert removal would be influenced by competition with pasture species. Results of an experiment in which pasture was removed adjacent to a salt marsh affected by culvert removal were consistent with this hypothesis. Results may help guide management of over 1,300 structures that restrict tidal flow to estuarine wetland habitat in New South Wales, Australia.     

Bovine biopolitics and the promise of monsters in the rewilding of Heck cattle

In the early 1980s the Dutch ecologist Frans Vera began an ambitious ecological restoration experiment on a polder in the Netherlands. He introduced herds of ‘back-bred’ Heck cattle and other large herbivores and encouraged them to ‘de-domesticate’ themselves and ‘rewild’ the landscape they inhabit. His intervention has triggered a great deal of interest and controversy. It is being replicated and adapted across Europe as part of a wider interest in ‘rewilding’ in nature conservation. This innovative approach rubs up against powerful and prevalent practices of environmental management. This paper examines these frictions by mapping the character and exploring the interface between different modes of nonhuman biopolitics – in this case the powerful ways in which modern humans live with and govern cattle. Focusing on the story of Heck cattle and the bovine biopolitics of their rewilding it attends in particular to the character, place and promise of monsters. It first outlines a conceptual framework for examining nonhuman biopolitics and teratology (the study of monsters), identifying fertile tensions between the work of Haraway, Derrida and Deleuze. It then provides a typology of four prevalent modes of bovine biopolitics – namely agriculture, conservation, welfare and biosecurity – and their associated monsters. This paper identifies rewilding as a fifth mode and examines frictions at its interfaces with the other four. Developing the conceptual framework the paper examines what these frictions tell us about the understandings of life that circulate in the ontological politics of contemporary environmentalisms. In conclusion the paper critically examines the monstrous promise of rewilding, in relation to tensions between the convivial aspirations of Haraway and Deleuze.     

Space as a mode of political thinking

This article examines the relationship between space and politics though an exploration of the political theories of Arendt, Laclau, Mouffe and Rancière. It starts with an engagement with ideas about spatial metaphors and space, and argues that space may be considered as a mode of political thinking. It then provides an examination of the theories of these thinkers, paying close attention to the role space and spatiality plays in their conceptualisations of politics and the political. The article concludes with some observations on the relationship between space and politics.     

Grassroots masquerades: Development,paramilitaries, and land laundering in Colombia

This article shows how paramilitaries and allied companies put grassroots development discourses of political participation and subsidiarity, environmental conservation, and ethnic empowerment to work in executing and ratifying their massive land grab in northwest Colombia. More than a case of trying to “whitewash” their malfeasance with fashionable and politically correct development-speak, I argue that the grassroots development apparatus—its discourses, institutional forms, and practices—became utterly instrumental to the illegal land seizures. Moreover, when operating alongside practices of land parcelization, iterative transactions, producers’ cooperatives, and third-party intermediaries, grassroots development facilitated what could be called “land laundering.” In the process, grassroots development became a conduit for paramilitary-backed state formation in which projects of liberal governance commonly associated with the imperatives of institution building, good governance, and the rule of law became perversely compatible with the region’s economies of violence. With the World Bank increasingly concerned over the conflation of fragile states, violent conflict, and alarming land grabs, this article raises questions about how the grassroots solutions currently being endorsed by the Bank can in some cases actually facilitate dispossession, illicit economies, and violent political projects. The way paramilitaries harnessed grassroots development also has critical implications for debates about post-development.     

Business associations and local development: The Okanagan wine industry’s response to NAFTA

Business associations (BAs) represent a widely prevalent institution contingent upon a plethora of regional and industrial contexts around the world. Although their role in local development is rarely highlighted this paper argues that analysis of the structure and strategies of BAs reveals important insights into the problematic nature of external economies, typically based on the willingness of highly independent small firms to share and possibly fund some common service(s). BAs illustrate cooperative behaviour and their fragmentation indicates limits to cooperation and thereby to the contested nature of this particular external economy. Conceptually, the paper interprets BAs as institutional expressions of local cooperation and theorizes their strategy and structure in terms of a ‘logic of exchange’ model. This model defines the relationships between BAs, their members (organizational domains) and governments in terms of the logics of ‘membership’ and ‘influence’ that help understand the opportunities afforded and tensions imposed by the rationale and dynamics of cooperation. Empirically, the paper examines the formation and performance of BAs in the restructuring of the Okanagan’s wine industry that was stimulated by the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the US and Canada in 1989 and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of 1991. In the Okanagan wine industry, a newly formed BA was vital in helping firms overcome the crisis generated by free trade. However, subsequent fragmentation that arose out of member disenchantment with logics of influence and membership, indicated limits to local cooperation that may constitute a significant diseconomy in a future crisis.     

Raw hides: Hegemony and cattle in Guatemala’s northern lowlands

As a microcosm of the global livestock-climate problem, this tale of two hegemonies explores how and why two critical constituencies—development planners and conservation professionals—have failed to see the “raw hides” of cattle’s impact on the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala. Based on ethnographic research carried out between 1993 and 2007, this paper seeks to explain the idealization, persistence, and normalization of cattle as a land use in Petén from the colonial period to the present. Framed with a Gramscian analysis of the critical role of organic intellectuals in catalyzing social change, I explore the mental feedback loops reinforcing other social and environmental causes of land degradation in this region. After presenting data on the historical expansion of cattle into the Guatemalan lowlands through government colonization programs, I describe how multilateral lending agencies like the World Bank continue to corral development plans in the region. The next part of the paper explores the complex and ambiguous relations between conservation professionals and the ranching sector. I then conclude with a discussion of how global trade and infrastructure projects such as the Puebla to Panama Plan and the Central America Free Trade Agreement will further mask the hegemonic hides of cattle.     

连云港海洋牧场综合管理可视化系统的设计与实现

基于江苏连云港海洋牧场建设管理业务需求，系统收集、整合连云港海洋牧场综合信息资料，综合运用GIS技术、三维可视化技术及数据库搭建技术，建立连云港海洋牧场综合管理数据库，设计了可视化系统的总体架构，实现了海洋牧场综合信息“一张图”管理、人工鱼礁投放全流程管理、地形地貌三维展示等功能，为相关管理工作提供技术支撑平台。     

‘There’s no future here’: The time and place of children’s migration aspirations in Peru

This article examines young Peruvians’ aspirations and the role of migration in their imagined futures, from a generational perspective. The data come from Young Lives, a long-term study of childhood poverty combining survey and qualitative approaches with children and their parents. The paper uses a biographical approach that sees migration as part of individual biographies as well as social structures and life course processes. The aim is to deepen understanding of the social contexts in which aspirations for and by children are generated, paying close attention to family migration histories, dynamic household contexts, and children’s migration networks. The analysis focuses on the time-spaces of migration aspirations, showing the way past, present and future are interconnected. It also emplaces aspirations by focusing on the way aspirations by and for children are constituted in and through particular places. The conclusion reflects on the role of poverty and argues that ‘aspirations’ are about much more than abstract ‘futures’; they orient actions in the present and say a great deal about young people’s current realities and relationships.     

侧扫声呐在人工鱼礁跟踪监测中的应用

随着海洋渔业资源的衰退和海洋生态环境的破坏,人工鱼礁技术得到迅速发展,成为海洋牧场建设的重要组成部分。虽然在人工鱼礁的设计时已考虑了防沉降、防倾覆等因素,但在建设过程中仍会面临上述问题,影响礁区的建设效果。利用侧扫声呐对连云港海州湾海洋牧场示范区进行鱼礁数据采集,根据阴影长度计算目标物高度的原理计算目标鱼礁的高度,分析对比鱼礁沉降量,结果表明个别礁体存在破损、倾斜,实际礁体布局与预设布局有一定的偏差,方形礁体抗沉降能力优于“十”字形礁体。     

河南安阳殷墟孝民屯遗址出土家养黄牛的DNA研究

作为晚商的都城和当时最大都市的殷墟(1300~1046 BCE),家养黄牛是最重要的大型家养动物之一.殷墟的家养黄牛可以肉食、可以役用,骨料可做骨器,是最主要的祭牲,其肩胛骨还可以用于占卜、可以记载甲骨文.本文对安阳殷墟孝民屯遗址普通灰坑和祭祀坑出土的15例牛骨线粒体DNA控制区285 bp的片段进行分析研究,其中有13例获取了所需的DNA序列.DNA分析表明12例属于家养普通牛(Bos taurus),1例属于野生原始牛(Bos primigenius).殷墟孝民屯家养普通牛的单倍型类群分布频率为以T3为主约占58.3%,T4次之约占33.3%,T2最少约占8.3%,该遗传多样性在当时已经达到或保持在可能的最高水平了.推测作为都城和大都市的殷墟聚集了中国早期各个地区的黄牛.孝民屯祭祀坑和普通灰坑出土牛骨线粒体DNA单倍型类群没有明显的差异,表明孝民屯用于祭祀的黄牛没有经过特殊的"母系"筛选,但不排除有对核DNA控制的特殊体质、生理或行为等性状进行有意识地筛选,以示祭祀的神圣性和特殊性.本文有限的DNA数据显示普通灰坑出土牛骨的DNA保存相对较差,暗示着普通灰坑的牛骨作为食余废弃物可能经历了更多炊煮活动中的高温处理,坑内埋藏环境不同也可能使普通灰坑的牛骨保存状况不如祭祀坑内的牛骨,普通灰坑牛骨样本DNA降解和破坏得更厉害.     

Uneven socio-ecologies of Hispaniola: Asymmetric capabilities for climate adaptation in Haiti and the Dominican Republic

This article adopts a “capabilities” approach to climate justice to examine a globally unique phenomenon: a decade of unprecedented surface area growth in Lake Azuéi (the largest lake in Haiti) and Lake Enriquillo in the Dominican Republic (the largest lake in the Caribbean region). The objective was to explore how two neighbouring communities and their governments respond to large-scale environmental change within connected but uneven political ecological contexts. Current climate change impacts in this bi-national island present an opportunity to better understand not only local climate justice but also how fragmented sovereignty, territoriality, and citizenship regimes may affect processes of climate adaptation. The researchers conducted 27 semi-structured interviews in the Dominican Republic and 11 in Haiti, with open ended questions. The data analysis explores impacts of the lakes’ growth; perceived causes and solutions; access to assistance; views on responsibility; and capacities for mobilization, bi-national cooperation, and international partnerships. The article argues that different capabilities for climate adaptation are shaped by historical path dependencies, local institutional contexts, and international linkages; and that attaining climate justice requires attention to these factors within a collective normative framework. The conclusion examines how climate science, research partnerships, and citizen participation might be leveraged to help build binational adaptation strategies grounded in a capabilities approach to climate justice.