Abstract: This study examines how differential accessibility to regional markets and natural resources affects smallholder livelihoods in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon, particularly in terms of household income diversification or specialization. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods were applied to semi-structured smallholder household (N = 319) and community leader interview data collected in 40 communities in 2006-2007, in addition to change detection performed on Landsat satellite imagery (1987, 1993, and 2001). First, the dissertation explores changes in smallholder land use patterns across the study region during a period of profound macroeconomic changes and continual urbanization, finding that overall land use trends of agricultural abandonment reflected national reductions in agrarian subsidies. Second, based on interview data, household processes of income diversification and specialization were analyzed in two sections of the study area, the Itaya and Nanay basins. In the Itaya Basin, it was observed that smallholder livelihood specialization was aided by road development increasing transportation accessibility to important regional markets. In the more isolated Nanay Basin, livelihood choices were found to be influenced by processes of livelihood displacement caused by conservation efforts, in addition to remoteness and river seasonality. This study concludes by reflecting on the importance of the spatial relations of access to resources and markets in the region and in similar places in the developing tropics. This kind of information can help make national and regional policy decisions on such issues such as conservation, agrarian credits, road development, which may differentially affect smallholder livelihoods and their environments. / text

Introduction. In 2006, a Peruvian environmental agency reported the presence of elevated blood lead levels (BLLs) in indigenous communities of the Corrientes river basin. This is a territory in the Peruvian Amazon where oil activity has been associated with serious environmental effects, with impact on an ongoing social conflict. This PhD project aimed to determine the lead sources, risk factors and pathways in children of these communities and to suggest control and prevention strategies. Given the arguments attributing the lead source to the oil activity pollution, the second objective was to clarify any potential connection between the two. This project was conducted by a collaborative research partnership with the regional health authorities and the community-based organization. The third objective was to characterize the challenges, facilitating factors and the lessons learned from the research process. Methods. Two epidemiological studies were conducted. Study I (2009) was carried out in three communities and study II (2010) in six communities with different levels of exposure to oil activity. The participants were children 0–17 years old. Data collection included: determination of BLLs, hemoglobin levels and anthropometric indicators, a risk factor questionnaire, an environmental assessment and a risk map. Data analysis included univariate, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression. Data for the third objective came from field notes, documents, interviews and a process of collective reflection. Results. Study I (n= 221) found no significant difference in the geometric mean(GM) BLLs between the communities exposed and not exposed to oil activity. Older age and being a boy were found as risk factors for BLLs ≥ 10 μg/dL. In study II (n= 346), age stratified logistic regression models indicated that children 0–3 years whose mothers had BLLs ≥ 10 μg/dL, children 0–6 years who played with pieces of lead and children 7–17 years who fished 3 times or more per weekor chewed pieces of lead to manufacture fishing sinkers had a significant increased risk of having BLLs ≥ 10 μg/dL. Children who lived in communities near oil battery facilities also had a significant increased risk of having BLLs ≥ 10 μg/dL. In both studies, environmental samples showed lead concentrations below reference levels. The challenges and facilitating factors identified focused on five interrelated themes: i) mutual trust, ii) multiple agendas, iii) equal participation, iv) competing research paradigms and v) complex and unexpected findings. Conclusions. Metal lead appeared to be the main source of exposure. Playing with pieces of lead and chewing pieces of lead to construct fishing sinkers appeared to be pathways of exposure for children aged 0–6 years and 7–17 years, respectively. Mothers’ BLLs > 10 μg/dL was a risk factor for BLLs > 10 μg/dL in children aged 0–3 years. Living in a community with high exposure to oil activity was a risk factor for BLLs > 10 μg/dL. The identified connection with oil activity was the proximity of communities to oil battery facilities and thus greater access to lead from cables and other industrial waste. Despite the numerous challenges, participatory research appears to be the most appropriate approach for this type of context. The study findings led us to recommend:i) a comprehensive community-based lead control and prevention plan,ii) the introduction of substitute non-harmful material(s) for fishing sinkers and iii) secure containment of the oil company’s waste deposits. / Introducción. En el 2006, una agencia ambiental del Perú informó de la presenciade niveles elevados de plomo sanguíneo en las comunidades indígenas dela cuenca del río Corrientes. Este es un territorio en la Amazonía peruana, dondela actividad petrolera ha sido asociada con graves efectos ambientales, originandoun continuo conflicto social.Este proyecto de tesis doctoral tuvo como objetivo determinar las fuentes, factoresde riesgo y vías de exposición de plomo en niños de estas comunidades paraproponer estrategias de control y prevención. Teniendo en cuenta previos argumentosque relacionaban la exposición de plomo con la contaminación por laactividad petrolera, el segundo objetivo fue esclarecer cualquier conexión entreambos. Este proyecto se condujo con la participación de miembros de la DirecciónRegional de Salud de Loreto (DIRESA Loreto) y de la organización indígenaFECONACO. El tercer objetivo fue caracterizar los desafíos, las oportunidades ylos aprendizajes del proceso participativo.Métodos. Se condujeron dos estudios epidemiológicos. El estudio I (2009) sedesarrolló en tres comunidades y el estudio II (2010) en seis comunidades condiferentes niveles de exposición a la actividad petrolera. Los participantesfueron niños de 0–17 años. La recolección de datos incluyó: determinación deplomo sanguíneo, de niveles de hemoglobina y de indicadores antropométricos,un cuestionario de factores de riesgo, una evaluación ambiental y un mapa deriesgo. El análisis de datos incluyó análisis univariado, bivariado y multivariadode regresión logística. Para el tercer objetivo, los datos provinieron de notas decampo, documentos oficiales, entrevistas informales y un proceso de reflexióncolectiva.Resultados. En el estudio I (n = 221) no se encontró diferencia estadísticamentesignificativa entre las medias geométricas de los niveles de plomo sanguíneo delas comunidades expuestas y no expuestas a la actividad petrolera. Los niños degénero masculino y los del grupo etario de mayor edad tuvieron un riesgo significativamentemayor a presentar niveles de plomo sanguíneo > 10 μg/dL. Enel estudio II (n = 346), los modelos estratificados por edad indicaron que losniños de 0–3 años cuyas madres tenían niveles de plomo > 10 μg/dL, los niñosde 0–6 años que jugaban con piezas de plomo y los niños de 7–17 años que pescaban3 veces o más por semana o masticaban piezas de plomo para fabricarpesas de pescar tenían un riesgo significativamente mayor de presentar nivelesde plomo sanguíneo > 10 μg/dL. Los niños que vivían en comunidades cercanasa las baterías de petróleo también tuvieron un riesgo significativamente mayora presentar plomo sanguíneo > 10 μg/dL. Las muestras ambientales en ambosestudios mostraron concentraciones de plomo por debajo de los niveles de referencia.En cuanto al proceso de investigación, los desafíos y oportunidades másimportantes se centraron en cinco temas interrelacionados: i) la confianza mutua,ii) múltiples agendas, iii) participación equitativa, iv) competencia de paradigmasen la investigación y v) diseminación de resultados complejos e inesperados.Conclusiones. La fuente de exposición principal sería el plomo metálico. Jugarcon piezas de piezas de plomo y masticar piezas de plomo para la construcciónde pesas de pescar serían vías de exposición para los niños de 0–6 años y 7–17años, respectivamente. Niveles de plomo sanguíneo > 10 μg/dL en las madressería un factor de riesgo para presentar niveles de plomo sanguíneo > 10 μg/dLen niños de 0–3 años. Vivir en una comunidad con alta exposición a la actividadpetrolera sería también un factor de riesgo para presentar niveles de plomo sanguíneo> 10 μg/dL. La conexión con la actividad petrolera parece estar en laproximidad de las comunidades a las baterías del petróleo y por ende, el mayoracceso al plomo proveniente de cables y otros residuos industriales.A pesar de los varios desafíos, la investigación participativa parece ser el enfoquemás apropiado para este tipo de contextos. Los hallazgos nos llevaron a recomendar:i) un programa comunitario de control y prevención de plomo, ii) laintroducción de pesas de pescar de materiales seguros, alternativos al plomo yiii) el control de la disposición de residuos de la actividad petrolera.

The Amazon rainforest constitutes a quarter of the global biodiversity and is responsible for 15% of the terrestrial photosynthesis. It is important to protect the forest and limit the deforestation to not release more greenhouse gases, which aggravate climate change. There is a big problem today with deforestation, especially in the Peruvian Amazon. In Peru is the main driver to deforestation human activity, such as road infrastructure, markets and agriculture. It is most common with small-scale agriculture, especially in the Cusco region where this study is conducted. How the deforestation should be managed or if current instruments are working is there different perspectives on. In this essay are the different perspectives regarding the exploitation of the Amazon and its impacts being analyzed. The essay has an interview method and the interviews are carried out on members of non-governmental organizations and Cusco regional government. Our analysis shows that the different perspectives show similarities regarding the main drivers for the deforestation, the information and knowledge-gap regarding the impacts of deforestation. There is, however, a difference in the perspectives regarding funds. One perspective from the non-governmental members is that there is not enough funding to receive as well as that the funds that do exist go to people and projects that do not do the work properly. / Amazonas regnskog utgör en fjärdedel av den globala biologiska mångfalden och ansvarar för 15% av den markbundna fotosyntesen. Det är viktigt att skydda skogen och begränsa avskogningen att inte släppa ut mer växthusgaser, vilket förvärrar klimatförändringar. Det finns ett stort problem idag med avskogning, särskilt i Peruanska Amazonas. I Peru är den viktigaste drivkraften att avskogningen mänsklig aktivitet, såsom väginfrastruktur, marknader och jordbruk. Det är mest vanligt med småskaligt jordbruk, särskilt i Cusco-regionen där denna undersökning genomförs. Hur avskogningen ska hanteras eller om nuvarande instrument fungerar finns det olika perspektiv kring. I denna uppsats beskrivs olika perspektiv på utnyttjandet av Amazonas och dess konsekvenser. Uppsatsen har en intervjumetod och intervjuerna utförs på medlemmar i icke-statliga organisationer och Cuscos regionala regering. Vår analys visar att de olika perspektiven har likheter angående de viktigaste drivkrafterna för avskogningen och informations- och kunskapsklyftan om avskogningens effekter. Det finns dock en skillnad i perspektivet kring finansiering. Ett perspektiv från de icke-statliga medlemmarna är att det inte finns tillräckligt med finansiering att få och att de ekonomiska medel som finns går till personer och projekt som inte gör jobbet korrekt.

Women's organizations in informal settlements located in peri-urban areas of Peruvian Amazon cities have been carrying out programs for solving nutrition, food, health, and income generation problems in their communities. This is a way of women's local action of self-help and self-reliance to transform their marginalized ways of living. This study focuses on two factors in the scope of women's organizations: (1) to examine what causes household participation in women's organizations. (2) To explore what type of women's empowerment leads to social development, assuming that women go through a process of empowerment as a result of their participation in women's organizations. The study data consists of a case study in one informal settlement in Pucallpa, 9 de Octubre, and key-informant interviews of women participating in women's organizations, and life histories of four women leaders. The quantitative analysis focuses on three hypotheses: (1) Single women-headed households participate more frequently in women's organizations than men-headed households. (2) Households with children under six years old are more likely to participate in women's organizations than households without. (3) Households in remote locations of the informal settlement are more likely to participate in women's organizations. The qualitative analysis focuses in three areas: (1) women's roles as community managers, (2) women's organizations as agents to produce structural change and (3) the relationship between women's organizations and women's empowerment. Findings cast doubt upon the first hypothesis by showing that single women-headed households were not economically vulnerable as it was expected and that their participation in women's organizations was not as frequent as the participation of men-headed households. Furthermore, men-headed households seem to benefit more from women's organizations than single women-headed households. The presence of children does not predict participation in women's organizations. Also, it is interesting that households in more remote and inaccessible locations seem to participate more in women's organizations. The study develops the argument that women's organizations, which bring in knowledge and more than partial problem-solving solutions, contribute to women's empowerment and household change that lead to social development. The study concludes that the types of empowerment that lead to social development are the cultural, and social because they are the ones that are more effective in bringing changes at the household and community levels. However, the economic empowerment should not be disregarded and should be considered in the formula because it provides one of the prime needs of urban poor women: income in their household. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

A queixada (Tayassu pecari) é um ungulado de grande importância tanto no sentido ecológico pelo seu rol vital na estruturação e composição das comunidades vegetais e para a conservação de ecossistemas bem como no sentido sócio-econômico, por ser fonte de alimento e renda para os caçadores de subsistência na Amazônia Peruana. Não obstante varias pesquisas relataram seu declínio em decorrência de sobre extração e citando a presença de epidemias como um problema potencial. Com o objetivo de avaliar a presença de doenças em populações de queixadas de vida livre e caracterizar os padrões de caça nesta espécie foi desenvolvido o presente estudo durante os anos 2008 e 2009 na Região de Madre de Dios. Foram coletados 103 soros provenientes de animais abatidos para caça de subsistência de duas comunidades indígenas e de animais capturados no interior de três áreas naturais protegidas. Os resultados evidenciaram a presença de anticorpos às doenças de brucelose, leptospirose, toxoplasmose, existindo diferencia na prevalência entre os locais de coleta. Esta corresponde à primeira avaliação sanitária de queixadas na Amazônia Peruana. Como parte complementar foram monitoradas as atividades de caça dos caçadores de subsistência das duas comunidades para caracterizar a área de caça utilizada, a produtividade, a pressão de caça e avaliar se a extração era sustentável. A caça das queixadas aparenta ser sustentável e a população caçada esta sendo adequadamente extraída em termos de sustentabilidade em longo prazo. / The peccary (Tayassu pecari) holds an important place in the Amazonian ecosystem. As seed dispersers they have measurable effects on their habitat, partly guiding structure and composition of the vegetation community. Additionally, their socio-economic role is unsurpassed as one of the most important sources of bushmeat for subsistence hunters in the Peruvian Amazon. Various studies have alarmingly reported the decline of several populations, possibly a result of overextraction due to hunting. However, passing reference was also made to disease and its possible role in population fluctuations. The following study, taking place in Madre de Dios during 2008 and 2009, evaluates the presence of disease in three wild peccary populations. It is the first of its kind in the Peruvian Amazon. A complimentary study characterizing human hunting patterns of peccaries in two indigenous communities is also reported. Exactly 103 serum samples from hunted or live-captured animals were obtained for the study. The results indicate the presence of antibodies to brucelose, leptospirose, and toxoplasmose, in wild populations, the distribution of which is not equal among the three sites. The complimentary study characterizes human hunting patterns of peccaries, focusing on the delimitation of hunting grounds and the quantification of hunting pressure, annual animal productivity, and sustainability of hunting activities. Hunting pressure was found to be well within the limits of sustainability.

This study explores the construction of regional identities through music performance and mediated forms of public culture in the urban Amazon of Peru, focusing on the city of Iquitos. A fast-developing metropolis, Iquitos's increasing industrial, ecological and economic importance on the national scale has driven a population explosion, drawing migrants from the surrounding jungle whose traditional communities are disintegrating. Urban musicians respond to these changes by attempting to create an inclusive, Amazonian regional community through public culture. A local folkloric genre called pandilla, which has morphed from a style associated mainly with native communities in another region of the Amazon to a distinctly mestizo music and dance from Iquitos, has been particularly central to this process. Shaped through forms of public culture in urban Amazonia that articulate cosmopolitanism and globalization to the local milieu, it connects a folkloric past -- molded by colonial dominance -- to the present, which is steeped in cosmopolitanism and regional pride. This project traces the region’s history beginning with an influential folkloric ensemble, Los Solteritos, which emerged in the early 1960s and came to epitomize local mestizo music, shaping iquiteño esthetics and repertoire, and establishing pandilla as a pan-Amazonian folkloric genre. It shows how this urban folkloric group claims deep ties to rural, indigenous Amazonia, even as it invests heavily in cosmopolitan esthetics and the mechanized reproduction of sound. Finally, this study demonstrates how Explosión, a pop group that performs tecno-cumbia music became the representative pop ensemble of Iquitos by bringing local symbols of cosmopolitanism and folklore into their performances. The ensemble re-packaged pandilla for consumption by various audiences locally and nationally, creating a unique music style at the juncture of community and cosmopolitanism, where industry and consumerism often shape musical trajectories. Overall, through the tecno-cumbiaization of pandilla, Iquitos is coming to terms with its position as an Amazonian city seeking admittance into the nation imaginary and radio, piracy, and public performance are the varied public cultural sites where regional identity is shaped as the Amazon grows in economic and political significance. / text

This research examines how the Kandozi indigenous group governs access to fish and timber, how access contributes to their well-being, and if the Kandozi’s natural resource use and socio-ecological system are sustainable. The Kandozi occupy a biodiverse tropical forest in the northern Peruvian Amazon with lakes and seasonally flooded areas. This indigenous group has livelihoods that are dependent upon securing access to natural resources that contribute to their well-being; hence it represents a good case study to investigate access and its relation with social-ecological sustainability. Access is defined here as the ability to derive benefits from natural resources. The analysis of sustainability was done by integrating research on both access and well-being. Multiple methods and a comparative examination of access to fish and timber were used to explore historical processes that shape access. The analysis of qualitative data on well-being and quantitative data based on income from fishing activities in 2009, helped evaluate if the Kandozi benefited from the use of resources and clarified the evolution of their quality of life. Hypotheses regarding how spatiality shapes access and how sustainability depends upon access to natural resources were tested. Results indicate that factors such as heterogeneity, kinship, land tenure, the legal framework and knowledge all shape access to natural resources. Spatial and temporal heterogeneity in particular is a critical factor because it determines resource availability. Furthermore, this study shows how benefits from the use of resources contribute to the Kandozi’s perception of well-being, defined by them as living without worries, which includes meeting economic, social and cultural needs. Results from this study indicate that perceptions of well-being depend on human values and change over time, consequently the sustainability of the social-ecological system fluctuates. This research concludes that sustainability of this and similar systems are dependent upon the moment at which the analysis is done, because of the changing needs of people over time. This study demonstrates that the range of relations and interactions among different processes that shape access, and the historically contingent characteristic of access and its evolution over time, help better understand complex social ecological systems. / text

A queixada (Tayassu pecari) é um ungulado de grande importância tanto no sentido ecológico pelo seu rol vital na estruturação e composição das comunidades vegetais e para a conservação de ecossistemas bem como no sentido sócio-econômico, por ser fonte de alimento e renda para os caçadores de subsistência na Amazônia Peruana. Não obstante varias pesquisas relataram seu declínio em decorrência de sobre extração e citando a presença de epidemias como um problema potencial. Com o objetivo de avaliar a presença de doenças em populações de queixadas de vida livre e caracterizar os padrões de caça nesta espécie foi desenvolvido o presente estudo durante os anos 2008 e 2009 na Região de Madre de Dios. Foram coletados 103 soros provenientes de animais abatidos para caça de subsistência de duas comunidades indígenas e de animais capturados no interior de três áreas naturais protegidas. Os resultados evidenciaram a presença de anticorpos às doenças de brucelose, leptospirose, toxoplasmose, existindo diferencia na prevalência entre os locais de coleta. Esta corresponde à primeira avaliação sanitária de queixadas na Amazônia Peruana. Como parte complementar foram monitoradas as atividades de caça dos caçadores de subsistência das duas comunidades para caracterizar a área de caça utilizada, a produtividade, a pressão de caça e avaliar se a extração era sustentável. A caça das queixadas aparenta ser sustentável e a população caçada esta sendo adequadamente extraída em termos de sustentabilidade em longo prazo. / The peccary (Tayassu pecari) holds an important place in the Amazonian ecosystem. As seed dispersers they have measurable effects on their habitat, partly guiding structure and composition of the vegetation community. Additionally, their socio-economic role is unsurpassed as one of the most important sources of bushmeat for subsistence hunters in the Peruvian Amazon. Various studies have alarmingly reported the decline of several populations, possibly a result of overextraction due to hunting. However, passing reference was also made to disease and its possible role in population fluctuations. The following study, taking place in Madre de Dios during 2008 and 2009, evaluates the presence of disease in three wild peccary populations. It is the first of its kind in the Peruvian Amazon. A complimentary study characterizing human hunting patterns of peccaries in two indigenous communities is also reported. Exactly 103 serum samples from hunted or live-captured animals were obtained for the study. The results indicate the presence of antibodies to brucelose, leptospirose, and toxoplasmose, in wild populations, the distribution of which is not equal among the three sites. The complimentary study characterizes human hunting patterns of peccaries, focusing on the delimitation of hunting grounds and the quantification of hunting pressure, annual animal productivity, and sustainability of hunting activities. Hunting pressure was found to be well within the limits of sustainability.

This thesis traces the ways of explaining the generative process by the eastern Peruvian descendants of the Capanahua. These predominately Spanish-speaking people tend to emphasize the discontinuity with their ancestors, a little known Panoan-speaking indigenous population of the Western Amazon. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and transcriptions of recorded conversations, this presentation follows and reconstructs a salient frustrative-generative dynamic in a wide range of representations, wherein alterations of self-containment or perceptibility incept the processes of differentiation and discontinuity. These processes guide a local conception of “descent” as infliction. Implications of this dynamic are examined for the formulations of kinship. The familial relations, explicitly based on notions of consanguinity and filiation – are cast in an ambiguous, if not predominately negative light. Procreation is formulated in predatory, parasitic terms, and shares dynamics with pathogenic causality and aetiology. As such, it does not naturally contribute to reproduction and continuity, but rather frustrates it by introducing difference into the vertical axis. Such results also produce horizontal differences and hierarchies, encoded as the person's divergent, hidden “descent” in the always “mixed” social life. This image of the generative process is instrumental to understanding the villagers' explanations of the acculturative processes. Because representations of acculturation focuses on the idiom of procreation and its frustrative results, it appears as the very function of procreative dynamics. This produces a series of associations between the progeny and sociality, focusing on their inherently “third” or external position and perpetual dividuality of belonging/containing. Such ambiguity might be tamed and everted, to produce cleansing or encompassment that counteracts the divisive continuity of time (qua descent, history, or kinship). In a contemporary context, these formulations are seen reflected in the villagers' construal of the Peruvian state as the urban environment that is hierarchically closer to the ideal originality and beautiful imperishability than the smaller, isolated unities of rural ancestors.

Este artículo analiza la evolución de la tenencia de recursos en laAmazonía peruana y la relaciona con la protesta indígena de losaños 2008 y 2009. A través de este análisis, se plantea que existendos visiones de desarrollo contrapuestas: la del gobierno y el grancapital por un lado, y la de los pueblos indígenas por el otro. Si biendurante la protesta el gobierno reprimió desproporcionadamentea los indígenas especialmente en Bagua, con lamentables cruentosresultados, el derecho de los pueblos indígenas a la consulta, basadoen el Convenio 169 de la OIT, quedó colocado en el debate nacional.Sin embargo, el gobierno ha mostrado gran resistencia parareconocerlo, pues esta consulta implicaría una serie de restriccionessocioambientales a la forma en que se desarrollan las industriasextractivas y las grandes obras de infraestructura en la Amazonía.Se sostiene que el conflicto continuará si no se desarrollan políticaspúblicas en favor de los pueblos indígenas. Para que estas se dense requiere, a su vez, de una visión diferente de desarrollo desde elEstado y el Gobierno.El análisis de la tenencia de recursos en la Amazonía se basaprincipalmente en información del Sistema de Información sobreComunidades Nativas, base de datos georreferenciada manejada porel Instituto del Bien Común. Asimismo, el artículo basa su análisisen bibliografía secundaria y en el seguimiento a los acontecimientospor la autora, como especialista en el tema. / This article analyzes the evolution of the natural resources tenure inthe Peruvian Amazon, and its relation with the indigenous protest ofthe years 2008 and 2009. The authoress argue that during the indigenousprotest aroused two opposite visions of development: the visionof the government supporting the big capital interests in one side,and the vision of the indigenous peoples defending their territoriesas a source of their material and identity survival. Nevertheless, theAwajún and Wampis suffered the disproportional repression of thegovernment in Bagua, with bloody results, the main four decreesthat were in the origin of the protest, because they threatened thejuridical security of indigenous peoples territories were derogated,and the indigenous peoples right to be consulted, established by theConvention 169 of the International Law Organization, was placed inthe center of the national debate. Nevertheless, the government hasresisted its application, because these consultations would imply aseries of socio environmental conditionings to the extractive industriesand the big scale infrastructure constructions. The authoresssustains that the conflict will continue if public policies in favor ofindigenous peoples would not be developed. For the establishmentof these public policies another vision of development is requiredfrom the State and government.