Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Frontier spaces of vulnerability: Regional change, urbanization, drought and fire hazard in Santarém, Pará, Brazil

  • Published:
Urban Ecosystems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Fire hazard is a mounting concern in tropical rainforests of the Brazilian Amazon and has raised awareness within the science community of the links between agricultural fire use, drought and accidental fire. As a result, fire is being addressed as a crisis event with mitigation focused on those who light fires, particularly smallholder agriculturalists. Little attention is paid to the historical and ongoing ways in which Amazon landscapes and peoples have been made more susceptible to fire. Frontier regions of the Brazilian Amazon serve a variety of functions within the larger Brazilian society, including as extractive reserves for economic development, as social safety valves to reduce population pressures, and as areas to support urban regional integration. Each of these functions has impacted frontier environments in ways that create more flammable landscapes and/or shape the vulnerability of people to fire hazard. This paper uses a case study inthe Brazilian Lower Amazon to understand how vulnerability to fire hazard develops. It argues that if fire mitigation remains centered on fire as a crisis event, an understanding of what constitutes frontier spaces of vulnerability, both in landscape and in populations, will be limited.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alencar, A., Nepstad, D., Mendoza, E., Brown, I. and Lefevre, P. (1997) Uso do Fogo na Amazônia: Estudos de Caso ao longo do Arco de Desmatamento. Unpublished report. World Bank.

  • Aptekar, L. (1994) Environmental Disasters in Global Perspective. G.K. Hall & Co., New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barros, A. and Uhl, C. (1995) Logging along the Amazon River and estuary: patterns, problems and potential. Forest Ecology and Management 77,87–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, B. (1990) Fronteira e urbanização repensadas. In Fronteira Amazônia: Questões sobre a Gestão do Território (B. Becker, M. Miranda and L. Machado, eds.), pp. 131–144. Universidade de Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, B. (1996) Brazil's frontier experience and sustainable development: a geopolitical approach. In Frontiers in Regional Development (Y. Gradus and H. Lithwick, eds.). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blaikie, P., Cannon, T., Davis, I. and Wisner, B. (1994) Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability, and Disasters. Routledge, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bogard, W. (1989) Bringing social theory to hazards research: conditions and consequences of mitigation of environmental hazards. Sociological Perspectives 3, 147–168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Browder, J. (1987) Brazil's Export Promotion Policy (1980-1984): Impacts on the Amazon's Industrial Wood Sector. Journal of Developing Areas 21, 285–304.

    Google Scholar 

  • Browder, J. (1989) Lumber production and economic development in the Brazilian Amazon: regional trends and a case study. Journal of World Forest Resource Management 4,1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Browder, J. and Godfrey, B. (1998) Rainforest Cities: Urbanization, Development, and Globalization of the Brazilian Amazon. Columbia University Press, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, L., Digiacinto, S., Sierra, R. and Smith, W.R. (1996) Urban system development, Ecuador's Amazon region and generalization. In Frontiers in Regional Development (Y. Gradus and H. Lithwick, eds.). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunker, S. (1984) Modes of extraction, unequal exchange, and the progressive underdevelopment of an extreme periphery: the Brazilian Amazon, 1600-1980. American Journal of Sociology 89, 1017–1064.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clayton, A. (1994) IDNDR Conference: protecting vulnerable communities. Disasters 18, 89–90.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coburn, A. and Spence, R. (1992) Earthquake Protection. Jon Wiley & Sons, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cochrane, M., Alencar, A., Schultz, M., Souza, C., Lefevre, P. and Nepstad, D. (1999) Investigating positive feedbacks in the fire dynamics of closed canopy tropical forests. Paper presented at the Conference on Patterns and Processes of Land Use and Forest Change in the Amazon. 48th Annual Conference, Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida, Gainsville, FL.

  • Cochrane, M. and Schultz, M. (1998) Fire as a recurrent event in tropical forests of the eastern Amazon: effects on forest structure, biomass, and species composition. Biotropia 31, 2–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cutter, S. (1995) Forgotten casualties: women, children and environmental change. Global Environmental Change 5, 181–194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cutter, S. (1996) Vulnerability to environmental hazard. Progress in Human Geography 20, 529–539.

    Google Scholar 

  • Detwiler, R. and Hall, C. (1988) Tropical forests and the global carbon cycle. Science 239, 42–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Downing, T. (1991) Vulnerability to hunger and coping with climate change in Africa. Global Environmental Change 1, 365–380.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emel, J. and Peet, R. (1989) Resource management and natural hazards. In New Models in Geography: the Political Economy Perspective, Vol. 1 (R. Peet and N. Thrift, eds.), pp. 49–76. Unwin Hyman, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fearnside, P. (1990) Fire in the tropical rainforest of the Amazon basin. In Fire in the Tropical Biota: Ecosystem Processes and Global Challenges (J. Goldhammer, ed.). Ecological Studies 84. Springer-Verlag, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fearnside, P. (1995) Hydroelectric dams in the Brazilian Amazon as sources of ‘greenhouse’ gases. Environmental Conservation 22, 7–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fearnside, P. (2000) Global warming and tropical land-use change: greenhouse gas emissions from biomass burning, decomposition and soils in forest conversions, shifting cultivation and secondary vegetation. Climatic Change 46, 115–158.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldhammer, J. and Seibert, B. (1990) The impact of drought and forest fires on tropical lowland rain forests in east Kalimantan. In Fire in the Tropical Biota: Ecosystem Processes and Global Challenges (J. Goldhammer, ed.). Ecological Studies 84. Springer-Verlag, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hewitt, K. (1983) The idea of calamity in a technocratic age. In Interpretations of Calamity (K. Hewitt, ed.), pp. 3–32. Allen & Unwin, Winchester, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heyman, B., Davis, C. and Krumpe, F. (1991) An assessment of worldwide disaster vulnerability. Disaster Management 4, 3–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holdsworth, A. and Uhl, C. (1997) Fire in Amazonian selectively logged rain forest and the potential for fire reduction. Ecological Applications 7, 713–725.

    Google Scholar 

  • Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatísticas (IBGE). 1970-2000. Agricultural, Population, and Industrial Census for the state of Pará. IBGE, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • nstituto do Desenvolvimento Econômico-Social do Pará (IDESP). (1992) Cenários Sócio-Econômicos da Região Oeste do Pará(1992-2010). IDESP, Belém, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khondker, H. (1996) Women and floods in Bangladesh. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters 14, 281–292.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liverman, D. (1994) Vulnerability to global environmental change. In Environmental Risks and Hazards (S. Cutter, ed.), pp. 326–342. Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malingreau, J. (1985) Remote sensing of forest fires: Kalimantan and N. Borneo in 1982-83. Ambio 14, 315–321.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGrath, D.G., de Castro, F., Futemma, C., de Amaral, B.D. and Calabria, J. (1993) Fisheries and the evolution of resource management on the lower Amazon floodplain. Human Ecology 21, 167–195.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGrath, D., Nepstad, D. and Alencar, A. (2001) A Cuiabá-Santarém: amea¸ ca ecologica ou caminho da prosperi-dade? www.ipam.org.br/polamb/cuisant.htm. Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amaz ônia (IPAM), Belém, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miranda, J., Marcelo, S. and Melo, M. (1996) Situação Fundiária no Município de Santarém. Programa de Integravção Mineral em Munícipios da Amazônia (PRIMAZ) e Companhia de Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais (CPRM), Belém, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moran, E. (1981) Developing the Amazon. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Movimento Pr ó-Oeste (1998) Estudo de Viabilidade Econômica do Estado do Tapajós. Comitê Pr ó-Criaçãao do Estado do Tapajós, Santarém, Brazil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mustafa, D. (1998) Structural causes of vulnerability to flood hazard in Pakistan. Economic Geography 74, 289–305.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nepstad, D., Verissimo, A., Alencar, A., Nobre, C., Lima, E., Lefebvre, P., Schlesinger, P., Potter, C., Moutinho, P., Mendoza, E., Cochrane, M. and Brooks, V. (1999) Large scale impoverishment of Amazonian forests by logging and fire. Nature 398, 505–508.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nobre, C. and Renno, N. (1985) Droughts and floods in South America due to the 1982-83 ENSO Episode. In Proceedings of the 16th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology, pp. 131–133. American Metereological Society, Houston, TX.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olegário Pereira de Carvalho, J. (1992) Structure and Dynamics of a Logged Over Brazilian Amazonian Rain Forest. Ph.D. dissertation. Oxford Forestry Institute, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prefeitura Municipal de Santarém. (1998) Proposta de Criação da Zona de Processamento de Exportação de Santarém (PA). Santarém Municipality, Santarém, Brazil.

  • Prefeitura Municipal de Santarém. (2000) Plano Municipal de Desenvolvimento Rural. Santarm Municipality, Santarém, Brazil.

  • Rankin, J.M. (1985) Forestry in the Brazilian Amazon. In Amazonia: Key Environments (G.T. Prance and T.E. Lovejoy, eds.). Pergamon Press, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salafsky, N. (1994) Drought in the rain forest: effects of the 1991 El Niño-Southern Oscillation event on a rural economy in west Kalimantan, Indonesia. Climate Change 27, 373–396.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saldarriaga, J., West, D., Tharp, M. and Uhl, C. (1988) Long term chronosequence of forest succession in the upper Rio Negro of Columbia and Venezuela. Journal of Ecology 76, 938–958.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santos, V. (1996) Corredor de integração Cuiab á-Santarém. ParáDesenvolvimento 29, 78–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sawyer, D. (1997) Urbanization of the Brazilian frontier. In Urbanization in Large Developing Countries: China, Indonesia, Brazil, and India (G. Jones and P. Visaria, eds.), pp. 245–257. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sayer, A. (1992) Method in Social Science: A Realist Approach. Routledge, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schroeder, R. (1988) Gender Vulnerability to Drought: A Case Study of the Hausa Social Environment. Natural Hazards Working Paper 58. Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, Boulder, Colorado.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sewastynowicz, J. (1994) A ‘two step’ migration and upward mobility on the frontier: the safety valve effect in Pejibaye, Costa Rica. In Where Cultures Meet: Frontiers in Latin American History (D. Weber and J. Rausch, eds.), pp. 173–187. Jaguar Series on Latin America. Scholarly Resources, Inc., Wilmington, DE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, N. (1982) Rainforest Corridors: The Transamazon Colonization Scheme. University of California Press, Berkley, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smolensky, E., Evenhouse, E. and Reilly, S. (1996) A social safety set for the Negev. In Frontiers in Regional Development (Y. Gradus and H. Lithwick, eds.). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sorrensen, C. (1998) Biomass Burning in Tropical Ecosystems: An Analysis of Vegetation, Land Settlement, and Land Cover Change to Understand Fire Use in the Brazilian Lower Amazon. Dissertation, Department of Geography, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone, S. (1998) Evolution of the timber industry along an aging frontier: the case of Paragominas (1990-95). World Development 26, 433–448.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, F. (1994) The significance of the frontier in American history. In Where Cultures Meet: Frontiers in Latin American History (D. Weber and J. Rausch, eds.), pp. 1–25. Jaguar Series on Latin America. Scholarly Resources, Inc., Wilmington, DE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turq, B., Sifeddine, A., Martin, L., Absy, M., Soubies, F., Suguio, K. and Volkmer-Ribeiro, C. (1998) Amazonia rainforest fires: A Lacustrine record of 7000 years. Ambio 27, 139–142.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uhl, C. and Buschbacher, R. (1985) A Disturbing synergism between cattle ranch burning practices and selective tree harvesting in the Eastern Amazon. Biotropica 17, 265–268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uhl, C. and Kauffman, J. (1990) Deforestation, fire susceptibility, and potential tree responses to fire in the eastern Amazon. Ecology 7, 437–439.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watts, M. (1983) On the poverty of theory: natural hazards research in context. In Interpretations of Calamity (K. Hewitt, ed.), pp. 231–262. Allen & Unwin, Winchester, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watts, M. and Boehle, H. (1993) The spaces of vulnerability: the causal structure of hunger. Progress in Human Geography 17, 43–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, D. and Rausch, J. (eds.) (1994) Where Cultures Meet: Frontiers in Latin American History. Jaguar Series on Latin America. Scholarly Resources, Inc., Wilmington, DE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Welch, R. (1996) Redefining the frontier: regional development in the postwelfare era. In Frontiers in Regional Development (Y. Gradus and H. Lithwick, eds.). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., London.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, G. (ed.) (1974) Natural Hazards: Local, National, Global. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • WinklerPrins, A. (2001) Why context matters: local soil knowledge and management among an indigenous peasantry on the Lower Amazon floodplain, Brazil. Etnoecológica 5, 6–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank (1998) Amazon emergency fire prevention and control project PROARCO, Report No. 18365 BR (Programa de Prevenção e Controle ás Queimadas e aos Incêndios Florestais no Arco do Desflorestamento—PROARCO). World Bank.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Latin American Studies, Department of Geography and Regional Development, University of Arizona, 409 Harvill Building, Box no. 2, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Cynthia L. Sorrensen

Authors
  1. Cynthia L. Sorrensen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sorrensen, C.L. Frontier spaces of vulnerability: Regional change, urbanization, drought and fire hazard in Santarém, Pará, Brazil. Urban Ecosystems 6, 123–144 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025970714471

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025970714471

Search

Navigation