Protected Areas in the Amazon: forest management, conflict and social participation

Abstract

Problems of environmental degradation worldwidehave generated different environmental policies, especially in protected areas. In the state of Amazonas, Brazil, about 50% of the territory is under the order of protected area, including 27% Indigenous Reserves and 23% of state and federal managementreserves. However, many of the conflicts generated over time in these reserves aredue to the limited participation of social subjects in the planning and implementation of various activities in the process of territorial and environmental management. The analysis of territorial disputes arising from forest management in reserves in the state of Amazonas should be based on management plans. It can be inferred that the demarcation process and institutionalization of the protected areas are generating territorial disputes, but along the deployment of the politics and governance, these differences are reduced to the minimum by means of the social participation of stakeholders. The authoritative processes in the delimitation of these areas have been characterized by endogenous planning practices and land use in protected areas with the participation of social subjects, evidencing favorable results of this policy for the state of Amazonas mainly forcultural and environmental preservation.