Land Reform and Land-Use Changes in the Lower Amazon: Implications for Agricultural Intensification

Land tenure has been considered one of the key factors that define patterns and change in land-use systems. This paper examines the implications of land reform for household decisions regarding patterns of land use, agricultural intensification, and forest conservation. We look at an Amazonian caboclo settlement in the Lower Amazon that had experienced land reform by the end of the 1980s. Results show that defined land tenure is not enough to guarantee agricultural intensification and forest conservation. In fact, several factors working at different scales are affecting land-use change in the region. At the settlement level, privatization of upland forest has led to an overall increase in cultivated land—pasture and annual crops—and increasing deforestation rates. However, at the farm-property level, different systems of agricultural production—intensive, extensive, or abandonment of land—occur according to availability of labor, and capital, and access to different natural resources.     

<卡塔赫纳生物安全议定书>及其对转基因农产品国际贸易和生物技术发展的影响与对策

《生物多样性公约》缔约国,为了现代生物技术生产的活性转基因生物（ＬＭＯ）的安全转移和使用,保护人类健康和生物多样性,经过５年的艰苦谈判,于２０００年初通过了《卡塔赫纳生物安全议定书》,成为第一部有关ＬＭＯ的国际法。该《议定书》确认了预先防范原则,允许缔约方禁止或限制ＬＭＯ进境,并要求含有ＬＭＯ的货物附有标签。作者预测了《议定书》对转基因农产品国际贸易和生物技术发展的影响,并对我国应采取的对策提出了