CHAPTER 6. Culture and demographics defines the Pan Amazon’s present

The dynamics unfolding across the Pan Amazon have been centuries in the making, with drivers of deforestation and ecosystem degradation evolving as a result of social and economic change.A colonial focus on resource exploitation, development policies and migration as well as the resistance of Indigenous peoples have transformed the Amazon.Latin America’s repeated failure to capitalize on the inherent advantages of its natural and human capital has been blamed on economic mismanagement, endemic corruption, entrenched inequality, legal insecurity and market cycles that undermine periodic attempts at reform.

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Infrastructure investments, agricultural production systems, land speculation and the exploitation of mineral resources have all been identified as drivers of deforestation and hydrological degradation in the Pan Amazon. These forces do not act in isolation, but are the consequence of people who act within cultural spaces defined by history and circumstance. Farmers, ranchers, miners, urban elites and the blue-collar workforce are all people pursuing their individual economic interests. Politicians respond to citizens’ demands for economic growth, job creation and an improved standard of living, while businesspeople seek to make a profit and increase their shareholders’ net worth. By necessity or design, people make decisions with extremely short horizons and are usually forced to choose among a limited number of options determined by public policies and market exigencies.

The current state of the Pan Amazon is product of a complex dynamic that has evolved over centuries. Paramount is the resiliency of its Indigenous cultures, which have withstood the onslaught of colonial and republican exploitation, particularly the events of a rubber boom (1879–1912) and the nationalist development policies of the last half of the twentieth century, when governments adopted policies specifically designed to populate and transform their Amazonian provinces. Migration has radically transformed the Amazon, creating a population that is highly dependent on the conventional economy and global commodity markets. Although the development policies that transformed the region after 1970 were largely focused on rural production strategies, internal migration has led to a concentration of people – and talent – in the region’s rapidly growing urban centers.

Economic and development policies originate in capital cities governed by political and financial elites responding to demographic and macroeconomic phenomena that are mostly beyond their control. Domestic politics are more often reactive than strategic, and when they do have a strategic focus, it is usually based on conventional ways of thinking or heavily influenced by vested interests. International institutions influence these policies through development assistance and investment finance, as well as advice provided by legions of development experts. Sometimes this expertise is astute, but too often it is flavored by cultural bias and economic perspectives derived from an ever-changing interpretation of historical events and economic theory.

Over the past half century, governing philosophies have swung across the political spectrum, ranging from authoritarian regimes espousing economic nationalism to liberal democracies seeking to integrate national economies into global markets. Latin America seems always to be on the verge of a development breakout — but it never actually materializes. The failure to capitalize on the inherent advantages of the region’s natural and human capital has been ascribed to economic mismanagement, endemic corruption, entrenched inequality, legal insecurity and market cycles that undermine periodic attempts at reform.

The original economic strategy of European colonial powers was based on the exploitation of the Amazon’s natural resources. This extractive model was inherited by nation states that complemented it with an emphasis on national sovereignty. The importance of sovereignty was accentuated during the first rubber boom, when competition altered international boundaries and reinforced distrust of foreign powers. The fear of foreign dominance is a legacy of a shared colonial past and dubious investment schemes concocted by international holding companies preying on the needs of sovereign states.

Mistrust may have been reinforced by the US military during the Second World War, when it installed an independent logistical system to ensure the supply of rubber. It was most certainly strengthened during the Cold War, when the United States meddled in the internal affairs of Latin American countries. It would eventually manifest itself in Brazil as a paranoid conspiracy theory that the Amazon would be declared an international park under the guidance of the United Nations. The fear of neocolonialism extends to multinational corporations, which are viewed with suspicion, and is reflected in an international treaty that effectively prohibits research by pharmaceutical companies targeting the biodiversity of the Amazon.

Each nation has a unique story. Brazil and Bolivia have aggressively expanded their agricultural frontiers, motivated by cultures that lionize pioneers and policies that support private initiative. Colombia and Peru have experienced civil unrest and extreme violence that inhibited their ability to develop their Amazonian hinterlands. Peace, even if imperfect, increased migration and settlement. Venezuela has over-invested in oil production, which inadvertently suppressed development options that might have brought change to the Amazon.

The opposite occurred in Ecuador, where investment in oil stimulated both migration and agricultural development. Suriname and Guyana have essentially ignored their forest interior, choosing instead to focus on the exploitation of their mineral resources. French Guiana is an appendage of its former colonizer and has little motivation to develop its forest resources.

Banner Image: The communities of Ribeirinho, on the main course of the Amazon and Solimões rivers, between Iquitos and Belém, trace their demographic history to ethnic groups. Credit: © Thiago Orsi Laranjeiras, Shutterstock.

“A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” is a book by Timothy Killeen and contains the author’s viewpoints and analysis. The second edition was published by The White Horse in 2021, under the terms of a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).

To read earlier chapters of the book, find Chapter One here, Chapter Two here, Chapter Three here, Chapter Four here and Chapter Five here.