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Abstract
As rural Amazonian caboclo households transition from subsistence to increasingly market-based economies with systems of individualized production and consumption, the non-market exchanges of cooperative labor and game meat integral to the practice of subsistence hunting maintain bonds between households in the community. Further, subsistence hunting strengthens kinship ties across households wherein both men and women are important actors, an additional important component of local resource management. This study conducted in Brazil's first sustainable development settlement, Projecto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (PDS) São Salvador, suggests that not only are use rules important in the local management of natural resources, but also that inter-household relations of social conflict and social cohesion expressed in subsistence hunting reinforce community social structure while simultaneously impacting the natural resource base. In the effort to link social with ecological sustainability, conservation and development planners must recognize that extra-community government regulation may interfere with the socio-cultural dynamics of local community identity and governance explicit in subsistence hunting in rural Amazonian coboclo communities and could potentially produce negative consequences for community social structure and the natural environment.
Acknowledgements
Funding for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation (Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, #6391954) and Working Forests in the Tropics Small Grants Competition at the University of Florida. The Brazilian NGO, PESACRE, was very accommodating in providing logistical support during Minzenberg's stay in Acre. We especially thank biologist Vângela Nascimento and agronomist (Cazuza) Eduardo Borges of PESACRE. Thanks to Michael Larson for his help in preparing the map of PDS São Salvador. We would also like to thank three anonymous reviewers and the following individuals for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper: Laura Bird, John Cinnamon, Cameron Hay-Rollins, Jonathan Larson, Michael Minzenberg, Marianne Schmink, Jackie Vadjunec, and Tracy Van Holt.
Notes
1. Prior to being named the first sustainable development settlement within Brazil in 2000, Projeto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (PDS) São Salvador was commonly referred to as Seringal São Salvador in deference to its use and designation as a rubber tapping estate. The word “seringal” is used in Brazil to designate a current, or former, rubber estate.
2. The sale of wild game and other animal products has been prohibited in Brazil since the declaration of federal law 5.197 in 1967.
3. All quotations from residents of PDS São Salvador were translated from Portuguese by Minzenberg.
4. Interestingly, the two communities in the settlement with householders who owned the largest herds of cattle were the only communities that did not once send representatives to meetings of the Conselho Gestor during the meetings that Minzenberg attended from September 2003 to April 2004.