Nordeste of Pará
The Northeastern region of Pará, situated around Belem, is one of the oldest deforestation frontiers in the Brazilian Amazon: most of the forest was removed c.100 years ago and only very few patches of primary forest remain.
It is mostly settled by smallholders (23 thousand, more than two thirds of them in agrarian reform settlements), practising swidden agriculture and increasingly agroforestry. Expansion of agrobusiness (oil palm and soy) has been occuring in the southern part of this region. Paragominas, which has become a Green Municipality example, has staged several projects focused on the cohabitation between diverse types of land use.
Regional challenges
- Economic expansion with conflictual models of development
- Degraded land
- Implementation of zero deforestation
- Climatic changes and drought
Main questions of past and on-going research
Land use and impact on biodiversity and carbon storage : Rede Amazônia Sustentável
- What are the impacts of forest clearance, degradation and exploitation?
- What are the factors that determine patterns of land use, management choice, agricultural productivity and profits?
- What are the trade-offs and synergies between development and conservation ?
Agro-industrial expansion and social integration : AFInS
- How has the expansion of oil palm affected rural communities ?
- What indicators do family farmers use to assess the changes ?
- What could garantee a better integration of family farmers in the palm chain ?
Environmental restoration : Refloramaz
- What motivates family farmers to restore their properties ?
- What is the ecological and socialeconomical balance of the different restoration models ?
- How does climate and socialenvironmental changes influence the capacity to restore ?
Territory and Governance : EcoTerra, TerraCert
- In a context of zero deforestation, what land uses could be more ecoefficient ?
- How can scenarios help to elaborate an action plan to promote such ecoefficiency ?