The paradox of poverty in rich ecosystems

Impoverishment and development in the Amazon of Brazil and Bolivia

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5286482
AutoresA A R Ioris (0000-0003-0156-2737, School of Geosciences University of Edinburgh Drummond St Edinburgh EH8 9XP, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen182
Número2
Páginas178-189
Fecha de publicación2016-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaGeographical Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0016-7398 • E-ISSN: 1475-4959
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/geoj.12124
OpenAlexW2147039381
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas46

The article offers an examination of poverty and development in the Amazon, moving beyond the conventional view which places the blame on infrastructure deficiencies, economic isolation or institutional failures. It examines synergistically connected processes that form the persistent poverty-making geography of the Amazon region. The discussion is based on qualitative research conducted in two emblematic areas in Bolivia (Pando) and Brazil (Pará). The immediate and long-term causes of socioeconomic problems have been reinterpreted through a politico-ecological perspective required to investigate the apparent paradox of impoverished areas within rich ecosystems and abundant territorial resources. Empirical results demonstrate that, first, development is enacted through the exercise of hegemony over the entirety of socionature and, second, because poverty is the lasting materiality of development it cannot be alleviated through conventional mechanisms of economic growth based on socionatural hegemony. The main conclusion is that overcoming the imprint of poverty on Amazonian ecosystem entails a radical socioecological reaction. Additionally, the multiple and legitimate demands of low-income groups do not start from a state of hopeless destitution, but from a position of strength provided by their interaction with the forest ecosystems and with other comparable groups in the Amazon and elsewhere

Amazon rainforest · Biology · Blame · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Geography · Hegemony · Political science · Politics · Poverty · State (computer science · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Ecology · Law · Mining and Resource Management · Psychology