Implementing community-based forest management in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest: a strategic action fields perspective

We assess the conditions under which forest-dependent groups in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest may overcome inequalities in the legal access to forest resources. Through the development of contrasting case studies, we address attempts made by two community-based associations that represent those groups to legalize their timber production. We explore the dominance and mobilization of resources and draw on the Strategic Action Fields perspective to organize and systematically compare the case studies. Results reveal that to overcome existing barriers to legalization, communities need to create a social movement dynamic to seize opportunities caused by the exogenous interferences in local social orders. Skilled social actors need to mobilize powerful supporters to accumulate resource endowments necessary to put forward the legalization process. These results are particularly important considering the enormous environmental importance of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest, the increase in deforestation rates, and the precarious socio-economic situation of forest-dependent peoples.