Institutional feasibility and legitimacy of land use regulatory instruments in three agrarian reform settlements in northwest Mato Grosso, Brazil: the influence and role of integrated conservation and development projects :

This case study, located within the Brazilian Amazon "Arc of Deforestation" examines small farmer perspectives and the institutional impacts of Integrated Development and Conservation projects (ICDPs) promoted for forest conservation in Northwest Mato Grosso (NW MT). The study evaluates institutional variables on family farms in agrarian reform settlements, on lots of between 50-100 hectares. The region is a forest frontier comparable in size to Panama, and exhibits the highest deforestation rates in the Amazon, despite having experienced a broad range of initiatives aimed at halting deforestation and biodiversity loss over the past 15 years. The study is based on a sample of farmers in three municipalities (Juína, Juruena, Cotriguaçú) with varying exposure to ICDPs between 1995 and 2010. We performed an ex post analysis of ICDP impacts on the perceived feasibility and fairness of land use regulation, assessed through on farm surveys, interviews and a group workshop. In particular, we assessed land tenure, compliance with land use regulation, views on the national Brazilian Forest Code, and perceptions of social ecological conditions. Results indicated that the Brazilian Forest Code in abstract had less influence on settlers' land use decision making than did other criteria. In contrast, ICDPs increased the relevance and legitimacy of land use registration and licensing instruments administered by the state of Mato Grosso. The specific social viability of the latter regulatory instruments was embedded within local institutional arrangements that ncorporated concern for livelihood security, support for cooperative infrastructure and social organization, and attention towards reduced farmer transaction costs. The results suggest that support for an integrated set of instruments and interventions over longer temporal scales and at finer spatial scales can be successful routes for institutional improvements. These achievements may also provide a foundation for the effective application of other conservation-oriented policy instruments such as PES or REDD+.