SBR-9511965 Charles H. Wood University of Texas at Austin Tenure Security and Resource Use in the Amazon Private land ownership has been hypothesized as one way to reduce elvironmental degradation by small farmers in tropical settings, because of a longer time horizon of farmers who own their land. The research tests this hypothesis through in-person interviews of 400 farmers in the Para State of Brazil. Half of the farmers to be interviewed own their land, and half do not have title to their land, because a national program of land redistribution was begun but not completed in this state. Thus the State offers a natural experiment, with farmers facing similar physical and economic environments have different land-tenure status. Through the process of interview and inspection, the researchers will be able to determine farm attributes, farmer background and perception, and farming practices. A range of statistical analysis will be performed on the resultant data to uncover the relationships among these characteristics, particularly between land tenure and land-use practices such as deforestation, crop choice, and intensity of land use.
