Dynamics of land use intensification in the agricultural frontier of Brazilian Amazon

• Grant number: 17/12787-6
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): October 10, 2017
• Effective date (End): October 09, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Maria Victoria Ramos Ballester
• Grantee: Andrea Santos Garcia
• Supervisor abroad: Paul West
• Home Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Local de pesquisa : University of Minnesota, St. Paul (U of M), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 15/05103-8 - Dynamics of land use and land cover in the agricultural frontier of Brazilian Amazon: driving forces of changes and future scenarios, BP.DR

Abstract

This proposal aims to study the dynamics of land use intensification and its interaction with socioeconomic and environmental indicators in the Alto Xingu Basin - agricultural frontier of the Brazilian Amazon. Intensification is the increase in agricultural production without the increase in cultivated area. This phenomenon is characterized by its complexity and multidimensionality due to the great variability in its conceptualization and measurement according to the described agricultural activity, disciplinary insertion of research and region of study. Land use intensification has been observed for more than a decade in the Amazon basin, but science still shows a gap in the discussion on the subject. It is only in recent years that major initiatives to survey the intensified regions have emerged. Although intensification is generally considered a sustainable alternative to feed a growing population in number of people and patterns of consumption, little is known about the relationship between the intensification process and the social and environmental dynamics of producing regions. This proposal focuses on mapping processes of land use intensification, as well as evaluating the relationships of this process with the socioeconomic and environmental dynamics in the agricultural frontier region of the Brazilian Amazon. This project is part of the doctoral research "Dynamics of land use and land cover in the agricultural frontier of the Brazilian Amazon: driving forces of change and future scenarios", which aims to identify and evaluate processes and patterns of land use and land cover change in the Upper Xingu Basin, its relations with the quantitative and qualitative loss of native vegetation, as well as the tendencies and forcing of this change to, next, to project potential future scenarios for the region.