From illegality to forest certification: case study of community based forest management in Down Amazonas

This paper analyses changes on the arrangements of wood production from community forestry in Boa Vista do Ramos - Amazonas, resulting from alterations in environmental policies and sustainable forest management regulations. We present a descriptive research based in a case study and carried out through participant observation and non-structured interviews during a period with direct contact with a forestry association and the environment. Documents related to the formalization and legalization of the activity were analyzed and a review in policies and regulation related to forest management was made. Results demonstrated that the wood extractors, who used to develop their activities traditionally, had to adapt to new policy and technical orientations. There were changes in the illegal and informal pattern of production to a formalized, licensed and certificated community-based forest management. The coercion of the society to reduce the deforestation in Amazonia state and the development of a favorable situation to community forestry could be considered as causes of these changes. Traditional ecological knowledge allied with technical and scientific knowledge allowed the development of a reference project to the region. At last, the lack of specific strategies to the empowerment of the forest managers and changes in public policies could have led the search for simple productive arrangements, changing from community forestry to individual/familiar scale projects.