Traditional and indigenous communities in remote areas of the Brazilian Amazonian rain forest continue to be marginalized in terms of economic development. At the same time, these traditional communities have been the guardians of the forest. In the municipio of Barcelos (122k km2), the county in which we conducted our research, the rain forest remains 99% intact. However, it is becoming increasingly vulnerable to degradation from outside sources. Communities have suffered in recent years as non-timber forest products have become less profitable, while subsistence fishing has become less productive due to outsiders exploiting the fishery resources. One solution to this problem is the zoning of fisheries, to reserve fishery resources in the vicinity of these communities for the communities. This would allow their subsistence fisheries to improve (their basic source of protein) while enabling them to engage in the provision of ecotourism based on sport fishing. We have conducted a set of surveys in nine communities (approximately 70% of adults have been sampled) to characterize their economic and social activities, identify obstacles in the way of new activities and to understand their preferences for alternative sustainable development activities. We conduct a choice-modeling experiment to ascertain those changes that can make the biggest difference for the communities
Results/Conclusions
The choice modeling experiment reveals that the ribeirinhos (traditional and indigenous people living along the rivers) prefer an increase in benefits to the community as a whole over payments to individuals, and that excluding commercial fishers from their subsistence fishing areas is the most preferred policy. Other policies that were examined include increases in the availability of electricity, better prices for agricultural products, subsidy payments from the sport fishing industry and better drinking water. These results can support the development of policy that can improve quality of life while preserving the highly intact nature of the rain forest in this region.