Abstract
Institutional perspectives and theories have shaped how problems related to individual and collective choices in forest landscapes are perceived. This article explores the social impacts of the Rural Environmental Cadastre (CAR) in the municipality of Sao Felix do Xingu, in the state of Para, Brazilian Amazon. CAR is a tenure clarification and environmental compliance intervention to reduce deforestation and improve forest conservation in the Brazilian Amazon. With a focus on smallholders, the article provides insights on how to better understand institutional bricolage and behavior change in the context of social practices. Results suggest that CAR implementation is still too limited to adequately reflect the heterogeneity and complexity of reducing deforestation in the Eastern Amazon. The SFX case shows that land users responsible for pursuing environmental compliance normally draw on existing traditions – styles of thinking, sanctioned social relationships – to respond to changing situations. Neglecting such social processes and practices can decrease the long-term effectiveness of interventions such as CAR. This is usually a result of unforeseen interactions among activities practiced by the range of different actors in forest landscapes. Concluding remarks argue that, unless we shift our approach from focusing on changing individuals’ behavior to changing the interaction of elements that constitute social practices, we will remain blind to the conditions that actually drive behavior change towards environmental compliance and forest conservation.
Highlights
The creation and implementation of viable governance systems for forest landscapes face many challenges, prompting researchers to explore ways to explain the inherent complexity of such multiple systems (Poteete 2012)
This article explores the social impacts of the Rural Environmental Cadastre (CAR) in the municipality of São Félix do Xingu (SFX), in the state of Pará, Brazilian Amazon
The SFX case shows that land users responsible for pursuing environmental compliance normally draw on existing traditions – styles of thinking, sanctioned social relationships, power dynamics – to respond to changing situations
Summary
The creation and implementation of viable governance systems for forest landscapes face many challenges, prompting researchers to explore ways to explain the inherent complexity of such multiple systems (Poteete 2012). Much has been learned from practices to understand what drives behavior change over the past few decades, persistent knowledge gaps continue to constrain the development of balanced forest governance systems (Reed et al 2014) Many of these shortcomings concern the institutional analysis and social impacts of policies and measures applied to the governance of forest landscapes. A second hypothesis, derived from the main one, is that CAR is reinforcing social inequalities in the municipality, because it fails to provide the necessary conditions for behavior change These inequalities are perceived by research participants as differences in access to natural resources, in the exercise of power, and in opportunities for social change among diverse local actors, resulting in a decrease in wellbeing among smallholders. The article concludes with insights on how to better understand institutional bricolage and behavior change in the context of social practices
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