This title was first published in 2003: Despite their growing political significance, the linkages between local resource management and the global political economy are often poorly understood. This book addresses these linkages in a grounded analysis of extractive reserves: areas in Brazil set aside for local populations who depend on natural resources for their livelihood. Extractive reserves are the result of the struggle of the rubber tappers for control over their natural resources and worldwide concern with the conservation of the Amazon Rainforest. The author examines their significance for Brazil as a pioneering legislative and policy initiative to combine conservation with productive use of natural resources, to recognize common property rights to natural resources, and to support traditional populations’ modes of production. Extractive Reserves in Brazilian Amazonia examines the formation and institutional sustainability of the reserves, and in so doing provides a valuable insight into the relationship between local institutions and the wider socio-political and economic context with regard to forest management.

’Catarina Cardoso has produced an innovative, insightful and critical analysis of Brazil’s extractive reserves, now a major instrument of conservation policy in Amazonia. It will make a stimulating read for all those interested in the role of environmental policy in protecting tropical rain forests for national and global benefit.’ Anthony Hall, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK ’The value of Catarina Cardoso’s book is that she provides telling examples of what works and what does not work, in Amazonian development. This is a case study at the global scale...’ Professor Michael Redclift, Kings College London, UK 'This book is a must for all those involved in the Amazon forest: researchers, planners, policy-makers and the interested public. Its interesting research approach makes it most usable for classes on interdisciplinary aspects of interactions between humans and their environment.' International Journal of Sustainable Development

Catarina A.S. Cardoso is a lecturer in Economics and Development at the University of Westminster and has worked as an independent consultant for NGOs and other organisations since 1999. She has conducted extensive field research in Brazil, involving long visits to the forests of the rubber tappers.