Community loggers attempting to legalize traditional timber harvesting in the Brazilian Amazon: An endless path

Abstract

We conducted a case study to analyze the challenges experienced by small loggers in implementing a Community Forest Management (CFM) model demanded by external environmental agencies. The case study was undertaken within traditional communities located in Boa Vista do Ramos County, Amazonas State. With environmental issues surrounding tropical forest becoming increasingly disputed, traditional logging activities performed by locals came to be regarded as illegal. We believe that despite significant efforts to promote CFM initiatives, principally undertaken via public policy, small loggers have in fact had little success adapting to this new legal context. The results demonstrated that when small-scale loggers where supported by specific regulations and some external assistance they were able to collectivize their activities, forming the Community Association of Agricultural and Forest Products Harvesting (ACAF). After meeting challenges to strengthen their technical, social and managerial aspects, ACAF obtained environmental licenses and forest certification. However subsequent changes in forest policies lead to the termination of CFM-oriented regulations and ACAF weakened. Nevertheless, the social and human capital that had been developed in the collective ended up being successfully applied to other individual small-scale projects in the same region. We conclude that despite the community loggers' success in establishing a new and more sustainable way of working, they were not able to continue these activities within this new legal environment. The policies and laws that apply to CFM are more oriented to conservation goals than to meeting the demands of producers and contributing to their livelihoods.