Development paradigms contributing to the transformation of the Brazilian Amazon: do people matter? Peter Mann de Toledo 1 , Eloi Dalla-Nora 1 , Ima Ce ´ lia Guimara ˜ es Vieira 2 , Ana Paula Dutra Aguiar 1 and Roberto Arau ´ jo 2 The Brazilian Amazon is being affected by the new worldwide geopolitical transformation that is tending towards an integrated global economy. In the region environmental considerations have not been adequately incorporated into long-term land use planning and this failure has partly been due to the complexities of the country’s existing inter-sectorial institutional arrangements. In this paper, we briefly explore two distinct economic development phases that have been reshaping Amazonian landscapes since the 1990s. We first focus on the role of traditional populations in conservation and land use planning (socio-environmental model). We contrast this with the ‘post- environmental’ development model that currently dominates the land use dynamics of Amazonia and which is in stark contrasts with previous advances in environmental protection, whose basis was sustainable use of resources and social participation. The future of the socio-environmental model appears uncertain and its recovery and long-term maintenance to underpin sustainable development will depend on the strengthening the participation of the civil societal sectors that are able to reestablish balance to the sustainability agenda in the region. Addresses 1 Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, Sa ˜o Jose ´ dos Campos, SP 12247-016, Brazil 2 Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, CP. 399, Bele ´ m, Para ´, CEP 66040-170, Brazil Corresponding author: de Toledo, Peter Mann (peter.toledo@hotmail.com) Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2017, 26–27:xx–yy This review comes from a themed issue on Open issue, part II Edited by Eduardo S Brondizio, Rik Leemans and William D Solecki Received: 15 June 2016; Revised: 14 December 2016; Accepted: 19 January 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2017.01.009 1877-3435/ã 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Introduction The Amazon region offers important lessons to be learnt in environmental political studies regarding the interplay between nature and humans [1] in relation to environ- mental sustainability. After the Rio 92 Summit, a new ‘socio-environmental model’ [2] became the basis of territorial management in the Brazilian Amazon [3,4]. It appeared to represent an important political advance for economically marginalized populations, which histor- ically have been characterized by their dependency on government support [5]. For the first time in history, Brazil’s legislation recognized the ecological values of the small-holders’ systems of production and they were incorporated as partners in sustainable development. However, these achievements are now under jeopardy with the emergence of a post-environmentalist period started in 2010. This new stage is characterized by the implementation of a dense infrastructure network to meet the demand from the energy and agribusiness sectors and result in additional and accentuated pressure on hitherto unexplored natural landscapes. We begin by presenting the major dynamics of land use changes, including the establishment of land use and conservation units in the last two decades. We then analyze the socio-environmental model that dominated land use policy since the 1990s until recently and how regional populations have participated in establishing conservation units of sustainable use as part of larger development programs. Last, we consider the ongoing process of development in Amazonia as a post-environ- mental trend which is characterized by heavy investment by the government and large companies in infrastructure, mining and land use programs. We point out the major challenges for the balance between of use of natural resources under a capital-driven agenda and the needs and aspirations of large and widely distributed populations throughout the Amazon region, which could have an important role in sustainability. Deforestation as a result of failed governance The large-scale destruction of tropical forests is consid- ered to be an important driver of climate change, in particular through the emission of greenhouse gases [6,7  ,8], and it usually leads to land degradation. Defor- estation is not homogeneous in either time or space [9,10]. In the Brazilian Amazon, deforestation peaked in 2004 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2017, 26:77–83