Extractive reserves, the properties rights, and sustainable development in the Amazon region
Bastiaan Philip Reydon & Francisco Carlos da Silveira Cavalcanti
The growing concerns with global warming and loss of biodiversity, amplified the Amazon rainforest matter as an international concern. Looking forward at the agenda pos-2015 the debate has to be broader and has to encompass the need to preserve the rainforest and generate development to very poor regions with many problems linked to the very unclear property rights as the Brazilian Amazon. In the past, the regions development was based on the cattle farming from the south of Brazil and has been responsible for the murder of Chico Mendes in the state of Acre. After that fatal happening the policy in the Amazon changed radically and one of the most important policies was the creation of the Extractive Reserves (RESEX), which are protected areas where the traditional populations continue its extractive activities, with no risk of being expropriated. This article will show how the creation of RESEX in Acre, by solving the locall properties rights problem, was able to protect the rainforest and generate income and jobs for the families. The article will analyze the RESEX Chico Mendes, in the state of Acre, one of the largest of Brazil, with 930,203 ha thousand ha.
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