ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study of an economically productive and ecologically sustainable land use that has evolved among traditional inhabitants in the floodplain of the Amazon estuary. The case study is interesting because rural inhabitants of the Amazon estuary implement an extensive form of land use in a biotope generally considered to have the greatest potential for intensive agriculture in Amazonia: the varzea or floodplain of sediment-rich rivers. The chapter examines the option from an economic perspective by conducting a cost-benefit analysis of various management practices carried out by local inhabitants in naturally occurring stands of the acai palm. Alternative land-use practices that permit both fruit harvest and palm heart extraction appear to be increasingly implemented by rural inhabitants in the Amazon estuary. Preliminary data from several islands in the Amazon estuary indicate that this and other forms of floodplain forest management are practiced over far greater areas than more intensive land uses such as shifting or semi-permanent cultivation.
