This dissertation explores the impacts of participatory conservation on gender structure in the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve (MSDR), Amazonas, Brazil. Generally, I am concerned with the social consequences of conservation initiatives for protected area residents-to what extent the participatory model is equitable for local people, particularly sub-groups such as women, and how gender hierarchies are affected by program participation. Using ethnographic and other qualitative methods, I investigate the transformation and reproduction of gender relations by analyzing how conservation initiatives shift the gender division of labor, empower women, and impact family and community organization. This study shows that participatory conservation projects, which introduce or reinforce exogenous institutions and cultural ideologies such as a cash economy, wage labor, democratic representation, organized civic engagement, and egalitarian ideology, create fundamental, unintended shifts in local social organization. These changes have important implications for human well-being and equality as well as long-term social and environmental sustainability. My findings show that gender relations are shifted in a more egalitarian direction as women engage in new economic activities, create political space, and interact with outside social carriers, yet, in many ways, traditional gender relations, including norms and hierarchies, are reproduced. Programs remain focused on a traditional gender division of labor, reinforce cultural expectations regarding women's responsibility as the main providers of child care for dependent children, and do not address barriers to women's participation and leadership at the social-relational level, i.e., within marriages and families-both primary production sites of gender inequality. The changes in social organization produced through sustainable development and conservation projects cannot be ignored from a conservation perspective, as these shifts affect the ability of women, potentially a strong source of conservation support, to participate as conservationists and active natural resource managers. Last, the introduction and reinforcement of these modern institutions creates such fundamental shifts in social organization that the prospects for long-term sustainability of the Sustainable Development Reserve (SDR) model are questionable. Examples of concerning changes include shifts in household structure and the attenuation of family cohesion as men and women leave their communities for days and weeks at a time for paid labor in conservation-related jobs; decreased agricultural production; a decline in communal traditions of labor reciprocity resulting from the loss of available adult workers within the household and community; loss of intergenerational knowledge regarding natural resource use and traditional economic activities; as well as shifts in livelihood and material aspirations among younger generations.

Sustainable development is often thought of as a product that can be obtained by following a prescribed course of interventions. Rather than conceptualizing it as a sweet spot of economic, ecological, and social balance, sustainable development is an ongoing process of embroilments requiring constant negotiation of often-competing aims. Sustainable development politics yield highly uneven results among different members of society and different geographic areas. As this book argues, such imbalances mean that sustainable development processes often prioritize economic over environmental goals, perpetuating and reinforcing economic and political inequalities. Governing the Rainforest looks at development and conservation efforts in the Brazilian Amazon, where the government and corporate interests bump up against those of environmentalists and local populations. This book asks why sustainable development continues to be such a powerful and influential idea in the region, and what impact it has had on various political and economic interests and geographic areas. In other words, as Eve Z. Bratman argues, sustainable development is a political practice in itself. This book offers detailed case study analysis, including of the creation of vast conservation corridors, the construction of one of the largest hydroelectric plants in the world, and new forms of land settlement projects. Based on a decade of Bratman's ethnographic fieldwork throughout Brazil, and particularly along the Trans-Amazonian Highway, Governing the Rainforest offers a fresh take on sustainable development within a multi-level analysis of actors, discourses, and practices.

Sacred Ecology examines bodies of knowledge held by indigenous and other rural peoples around the world, and asks how we can learn from this knowledge and ways of knowing. Berkes explores the importance of local and indigenous knowledge as a complement to scientific ecology, and its cultural and political significance for indigenous groups themselves. With updates of relevant links for further learning and over 180 new references, the fourth edition gives increased voice to indigenous authors, and reflects the remarkable increase in published local observations of climate change.

Taking into consideration the fact that many ecosystems are under-represented in protected areas of land and water and traditional management methods have often been ineffective, this volume describes how improvements can be made. Specifically, it explores ways of ensuring that all major ecosystems are safeguarded, and innovative approaches to conservation involving individuals, communities, companies and governments. The essence of the approach taken in the text is to build partnerships with those who have a stake in the care of land and water resources.

Aquaculture technology has been evolving rapidly over the last two decades, led by an increasingly skilled cadre of researchers in developing countries. Rather than copying, or adapting work done in industrialized countries to their situations, these scientists are moving aquaculture research out of the box to explore species and production systems relevant to their natural resources, economies and social institutions. Studies from India, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa are highlighted in this collection of papers, covering the entire gamut of aquaculture science from comparison of tilapia breeds, novel feed ingredients for indigenous species, improving disease resistance, water-use efficiency, traditional farming systems, spatial planning and economics. More than a how-to book, this volume introduces the researchers and institutions leading the development of aquaculture as it expands into new frontiers. This book was based on a special issue of the Journal of Applied Aquaculture.