Conservation and development alliances with the Kayapo of south-eastern Amazonia, a tropical forest indigenous people

Legally recognized Indian reserves of Brazilian Amazonia span over 100 mill ion ha of largely intact forest and are potentially valuable for biodiversi ty conservation, An important example is provided by the Kayapo territories which span more than 13 million ha in Para and Mate Grosso, Brazil, and pr otect a unique and vulnerable Amazonian forest type that is poorly represen ted in existing nature reserves. The Kayapo of southern ParP have stopped i nvasion of their lands by the most perverse threats to Amazonian forests, b ut they have become involved extensively in the sale of illegal logging con cessions for the high-value timber species mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) . In 1992, the non-governmental organization Conservation International do Brasil (CI-Brasil) began a conservation and development project with the Ka yapo community of A 'Ukre with the objective of providing economic alternat ives to logging and protecting a population of mahogany trees. This paper d emonstrates the conservation benefits that can be achieved by supporting su stainable development of indigenous peoples in the Amazon. Specifically, we : (1) evaluate the ecological importance of the Kayapo reserves from a biod iversity conservation viewpoint, (2) evaluate the conservation success of t he CI-Brasil project and test whether the implementation of the conservatio n alliance between A'Ukre and CI-Brasil satisfies common pool resource prin ciples, and (3) propose a model for expanding the small-scale conservation results achieved by the CI-Brasil project to all Kayapo territories. Severa l mammals (Tayassu pecari, Pteronura brasiliensis, Priodontes maximus, Pant hera onca) and at least one bird species (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) liste d as endangered were regularly encountered within 15 km of A'Ukre. Taxa enc ountered at relatively high densities in the project area included large cr acids, lowland tapir, and white-lipped peccary, indicating an ecosystem tha t is not severely impacted by hunting. Harvest offtakes of mahogany average d 0.44 stems ha(-1) within groves and 0.13 stems ha(-1) at the landscape le vel. We estimate that 85% of the fruiting population of Swietenia macrophyl la has been removed in harvested Kayapo territories in Part. We found Kayap o social organization in A'Ukre to meet criteria of successful common pool resource institutions. The CI-Brasil project resulted in protection of an i ntact mahogany population in 8000 ha of forest maintained by the community for ecological research purposes and mahogany preservation. Our analysis at tributes the success of the conservation alliance with A'Ukre to: (1) direc t benefits accruing to all members of the community, (2) fulfilment of crit eria for development of common pool resource institutions, and (3) long-ter m commitment of an external agency. We propose that by implementing these t hree elements elsewhere, the modest conservation result achieved at A'Ukre could be expanded to include the entire Kayapo nation and thereby contribut e to conservation of more than 13 000 000 ha of forest and cerrado in the s outh-eastern Amazon.