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Eco-Frontier and Place-Making: The Unexpected Transformation of a Sustainable Settlement Project in the Amazon

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 17; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14650045.2011.631199

1557-3028

Xavier Arnauld de Sartre, Vincent Berdoulay, Raquel da Silva Lopes,

Agriculture and Rural Development Research

Abstract An important issue today is the compatibility of agricultural frontiers, which are driven by economic objectives, with conservationist views. In the Amazon, family farmers are concerned with this issue since they are at the same time actors of the agricultural frontier and considered as potential actors of the preservation of the forest. Through the study of a highly symbolic settlement project in the State of Pará, this paper focuses on the role that family farmers can play in meeting sustainability goals. The central argument which is developed in this paper is that this objective may be achieved when projects do not presuppose social and spatial relationships; rather, it advocates an approach which is attentive to place-making processes. Notes 1. S. Hecht and A. Cockburn, The Fate of the Forest. Developers, Destroyers and Defenders of the Amazon (New York: Harper Collins Publishers 1990). 2. S. 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