conflicts of interests on the issue of timber exploitation within the chico mendes extractive reserve, acre, brazil

This paper analyzes the problematic situation of commercial timber exploitation as a land use option in the community of Rio Branco, located in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, Acre, Brazil, and examines the controversial implementation of the Community Forest Management Project (CFMP). Interviews with extractivists and representatives from nine government and non-government organizations resulted in a list of eight desired land use practices. Each of the interviewees was asked to rank the land uses according to his/her individual priorities. Through the use of the Indicator of Sustainability in Systems of Interests (ISSI), the degree of convergence was calculated between the interest (rank of priorities) of each extractivist and the collective interest, as well as between the interests of the extractivists and other institutions. Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) management and shifting cultivation are the preferred land uses noted by extractivists who are ‘non-participants’ in the CFMP, who attribute minimum priority to timber exploitation. Those who participate in CFMP rank timber exploitation as their top priority. Members of government institutions and NGOs indicated a preference for land uses that cause less impact on the forest, choices that are closer to the group of ‘non-participant’ extractivists than to the ‘participant’ group. In a second round of ranking, CFMP ‘participants’ significantly changed their previous choices, this time electing management of NTFPs and shifting cultivation as their top priorities. The results revealed that the issue of timber exploitation in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve constitutes a complex system of interests and that some extractivists do not feel confident in relation to the consequences of the implementation of the project, i.e., the project was not sufficiently mature to be implemented.