From large to small: Reorienting rural development policies in response to climate change, food security and poverty ☆ Benno Pokorny a, ⁎, Wil de Jong b, 1 , Javier Godar c, 2 , Pablo Pacheco d, 3 , James Johnson e a Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacherstrasse 4, 79106 Freiburg, Germany b Centre for Integrated Area Studies, Kyoto University, 46 Shimoadachi-cho, Yoshida, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan c Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Kräftriket 2B, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden d Centre for International Forestry Research, P.O. Box 0113 BOCBD, Bogor 16000, Indonesia e Casilla 2422, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia abstract article info Article history: Received 16 November 2011 Received in revised form 18 February 2013 Accepted 24 February 2013 Available online xxxx Keywords: Rural development policies Amazon Smallholders Economic growth Poverty alleviation Environmental costs Discourses regarding the development of the Amazon region highlight the importance of the local cultures, local knowledge and participation of smallholders, such as indigenous people, traditional communities and small-scale colonists. Current policies, however, still pursue a development model that is oriented towards global commodity markets and the capacity of well-qualified entrepreneurs with the capital required for large-scale investments, despite a growing consensus on its ecological incompatibilities, social limitations and economic risks. Decision makers from both governmental and non-governmental organisations widely disregard the possibility that smallholders could more actively contribute to rural development. Instead, the production practices of smallholders and their modes of social organisation are perceived as obsolete and inefficient. By presenting examples from the region, this paper argues that smallholders have the potential to manage production systems that maintain environmental stability while effectively contributing to local well-being. Therefore, the paper advocates to more effectively using local capacities for the development of rural Amazon through the promotion of small-scale production systems. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The traditional development models placed on economic growth have been recognised as reaching key global biophysical thresholds that jeopardise global environmental stability with severe local and global consequences (Rockström et al., 2009). In addition to the over- arching goal of poverty alleviation (UN, 2000), in particular climate change concerns have pushed forward low-carbon development objec- tives (UNFCCC, 2011, 2007, 2001), while the increasing global demand for food (Schmidhuber and Tubiello, 2007) has made food security an additional priority concern. The shift from a purely economic-growth perspective to multi- sectoral sustainable development and natural resource conservation (Arts and Buizer, 2009) has provoked an intense debate among policy makers, environmentalists, development and climate experts regarding the policy options that more effectively deal with the synergies and trade-offs among the economic, social and environmental effects (de Jong et al., 2010; Pacheco, 2012; Pokorny, 2013). In practice, however, it often remains unclear how economic growth and poverty alleviation can be achieved at lower environmental costs, particularly in regions where millions live under precarious conditions. This challenge is particularly relevant for the Amazon basin, the largest remaining contiguous tropical forest and home of more than 50 million people. Between the 1960s and 1980s, most countries in the region started to progressively integrate their Amazonian territories into the national economy (Hecht and Cockburn, 1989). The government provided fiscal and financial incentives to stimulate private and corpo- rate investments (Binswanger, 1991; Schneider, 1995) in large-scale cat- tle ranching (Barclay et al., 1991; Hecht, 1985; Hecht and Cockburn, 1989), the expansion of sugarcane, cotton and rice (Pacheco, 2006) and, more recently, soybean production (Nepstad et al., 2006). Support- ed by structural adjustment programmes (Schlesinger, 2011), the sys- tematic expansion of infrastructure (Killeen, 2007; BID, 2006), and the generous granting of concession rights (Bunker, 1985; Finer et al., 2008; Merry et al., 2003), the private sector started to make significant investments to access resources of strategic interest, including land for the production of soybeans, palm oil and other agricultural crops, as well as timber, minerals, oil and gas and the building of hydroelectric dams (America Economia, 2012; Robinson, 2008). Forest Policy and Economics xxx (2013) xxx–xxx ☆ This article belongs to the Special Issue: Forest and conservation policy in a changing climate. ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 761 203 3680; fax: +49 761 203 3781. E-mail addresses: benno.pokorny@waldbau.uni-freiburg.de (B. Pokorny), wdejong@cias.kyoto-u.ac.jp (W. de Jong), javier.godar@sei-international.org (J. Godar), p.pacheco@cgiar.org (P. Pacheco), johnson_james80@hotmail.com (J. Johnson). 1 Tel.: +81 75 753 9605/9603; fax: +81 75 753 9602. 2 Tel.: +46 86 74 73 71. 3 Tel.: +62 251 8622 622; fax: +62 251 8622 100. FORPOL-01021; No of Pages 8 1389-9341/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2013.02.009 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Forest Policy and Economics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/forpol Please cite this article as: Pokorny, B., et al., From large to small: Reorienting rural development policies in response to climate change, food security and poverty, Forest Policy and Economics (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2013.02.009