The effects of wealth and markets on rubber tapper use and knowledge of forest resources in Acre, Brazil

This dissertation examines the changing livelihoods of rubber tappers in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve in the Western Brazilian Amazon. Employing both theory and methods from the fields of microeconomics and cognitive anthropology, this study explores how growing household wealth and integration into markets are transforming extractive activities in the reserve, and how these factors may be reshaping cultural knowledge of forest resources. It then considers the implications of these findings for conservation and development in the reserve, and for the extractive reserve concept.;Multivariate regression analysis found that wealth had a strong positive effect on household income and a weak negative effect on percent of income from extraction. Households of varying wealth earn similar incomes from forest extraction, arguing that families still extract forest resources even as they accumulate and diversify wealth holdings. Yet, wealth was positively correlated to cattle wealth and pasture area, indicating that wealthier households invest greater wealth in production activities that involve cutting the forest. Integration into off-farm labor markets and product markets had moderately negative effects on both income from extraction and percent of income from extraction. Households earning the greatest share of income off-farm, those carrying out skilled wage and salaried labor, showed the most dramatic decline in the percent of income from extraction. There was no evidence that earnings were being invested in environmentally destructive land use, suggesting that the highest levels of integration into labor markets may have environmental benefits.;Cognitive tests revealed that rubber tappers maintain a high degree of shared knowledge on the domain of non-timber forest resources. This was true of study participants sub-divided by sex and age, and dividing sub-groups of individuals by level of wealth and market integration. However, moderately strong positive associations were found between integration into product markets and level of cultural knowledge for youth, and integration into off-farm labor markets and knowledge of young adults. Subtle trends in knowledge variation for rubber tapper youth suggest that youth from households at lower levels of market integration may be more likely to enter development projects promoting extraction.