Development and Conservation Attempts in Amazonia during the Past 50 Years

Development projects within Brazilian Amazon, such as resource exploitation and civilian settlements, were bulled through by military governments from the 1960s to the 1980s, but since that time, due to domestic hyper-inflation and the anti-logging campaigns of foreign countries, the federal government shifted to environmental conservation. A main turning point was the Pilot Program for Protection of the Tropical Forests of Brazil (PPG7) which was implemented with the financial aid of developed countries. From the second half of the 1990s, however, not only conservation projects in Amazonia but also developmental projects in Cerrado have been supported by stable domestic economies and widespread neoliberalism. The development drive has centered upon infrastructure constructions which promote exporting meat and soybeans. At a local level, the Secretariat of State for Rural Production consists of sections for both development and conservation – family farmer assistance and environmental protection – and the state government for environmental protection segregates the full protection units and the sustainable use units through Ecological-Economic Zoning. Meanwhile, environmental NGOs in various communities have experimented with agroforestry. The relay harvesting of nonwood products helps to increase the biomass and species richness. It is hoped that the local governments will continue to cooperate with agroforestry NGOs in order to raise the behaviors of small farmers.