This document analyzes the outcomes of Proambiente, a Brazilian program that promoted smallholder production and environmental conservation. It found that families participating in Proambiente had higher annual incomes, more diverse crops, and obtained more agricultural income per hectare than non-participating families. However, it could not determine whether these differences were caused by the program. The implications for a proposed REDD+ project in the area are that interventions should promote more intensive and diversified agricultural production to supplement livestock income, and reforestation on degraded lands to encourage environmental compliance.

1. Smallholder Livelihoods and Land Use in the
Eastern Brazilian Amazon: Lessons for REDD+
from Proambiente
Marina Cromberg (UDESC), Amy E. Duchelle (CIFOR)

2. Proambiente in the Transamazon
• Proambiente:
- Articulation of small farmers and civil society to conciliate
smallholder production + environmental conservation
- Became a federal pilot program in 2004
- 11 pilot sites in the Amazon Basin
- Transamazon site: 15 community groups; 350 families
- Interventions in the Transamazon: Land use planning,
community agreements, technical assistance and PES
- Ended prematurely in 2006 due lack of a national framework
for PES, limited funding and implementation capacity…
- To provide continuity to this initiative IPAM has proposed a
REDD+ pilot project with the same families
THINKING beyond the canopy

3. Sustainable Settlements in the
Amazon
• Proponent: Amazon Institute of Environmental Research
(IPAM)
• Scale: 350 families of Proambiente (318 km²) ; 3
reference settlements (2,288 km²);
• Target actors: Colonist settlers
• Drivers of D&D: cattle ranching, swidden agriculture,
Illegal logging
• REDD+ intervention mechanisms:
- Land tenure regularization;
- Assure environmental compliance;
- Incentive based mechanism: PES and sustainable land
use alternatives.
THINKING beyond the canopy

4. Research objective
• Analyze the possible outcomes of Proambiente
related to conservation and livelihood
improvement:
- land use
- agropastoral management
- capitalization level and means of obtaining
income
• Identify implications for the REDD+ project
interventions.
THINKING beyond the canopy

5. CIFOR’s GCS-REDD
Component 2 in Brazil
Map: CIFOR GCS-REDD

6. Transamazon site
IPAM & FVPP, 2009

7. Data collection methods
• Timing of fieldwork: July and August 2010
• 10 enumerators
• 4 village meetings 67 participants of
Proambiente
• 137 interviews in 4 villages
70 non participants
of Proambiente
THINKING beyond the canopy

8. Results: Income
Pro: USD 3,310
Anual per capita income (2009 -2010)
=
NPro: USD 2,084
Income Share
28
Livestock
41
Agriculture 35
28
17 Non Proambiente
Govt.support
12
11 Proambiente
Wage 12
Forest 8
4
2
Business
4
0 10 20 30 40 50
% household income (cash + subsistence)
THINKING beyond the canopy

9. Results: Land Use
% land cover (2010)
46
Primary Forest
53
Pasture 32
24
Mature Secondary Forest 12
13 Non Proambiente Recent deforestation 2008-2010
Initial Secondary Forest 8 (Pro: 3.4; Npro: 3.7 ha)
5 Proambiente
Crops 6 70 64
7
60
Agroforestry 2 51
2 50 Proambiente
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 40
30 Non Proambiente
%
% 30
21 19
20 15
- Forest cover (Pro: 66% e Npro: 58 %)
10
- No differences related to the mean % land
area allocated for each use between the 0
Primary Secondary Did not clear
groups
Forest Forest
THINKING beyond the canopy

10. Results: Agropastoral management
• More cultivated species diversity (Pro:12; NPro:
9.5) p=0.025
• Pro households obtained higher mean
agricultural income per hectare (2009-2010)
(Pro:USD 632; Npro: USD 445) p=0.057
• Reduced fire use in the last two years
• No differences related to the % of households
that use pesticides
• No differences between livestock income/ha and
number of cattle heads/ha (0.6 animals/ha)
THINKING beyond the canopy

11. Take-home messages
• Lessons learned from Proambiente
• Although there were no differences related to income,
Proambiente participants engaged in some practices that
reflected the program’s values:
- used agricultural land more efficiently
- preferred to clear secondary forest
- reduced fire use
• However, we can not affirm that these differences were
determined by the program, since we do not have
baseline data for the period before the start of the
program.
THINKING beyond the canopy

12. Take-home messages
• Implications for proposed REDD+ Interventions
• The Importance of income from livestock and agriculture
show the need for more intensive and diversified
production techniques, as already anticipated by the
project proponent.
• Given the fact that the families are not compliant with the
current forest code reforestation on degraded lands are
important to promote environmental compliance
THINKING beyond the canopy