Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Political Ecology of Regional Free Trade: Changing Conditions of Yerba Mate Production in Brazil and Paraguay

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This doctoral dissertation research is a comparative study that combines elements of regional political ecology, `new rural geography` and agroecology. It will document and explain the effects of the MERCOSUR customs union agreement on the landscape, especially the ecology and production conditions of yerba mate producers in four communities in Brazil and Paraguay, both of which must now compete with plantation production in Argentina. As a distinct alteration of national economic policies, the MERCOSUR custom's union offers an easily delineated policy change common to both countries. The new policy modifies the context within which farmers evaluate potential land management practices. These practices, in turn, induce distinct ecological effects. Thus, the project provides an approach through which the linkages between national policy and local ecological impact can be identified. Small agricultural producers provide the focus of the research project. Land management decisions are viewed as the result of individual interpretations of the existing opportunities and constraints. State policy changes enter into these interpretations by means of commodity prices and the perspectives of extension organizations and processors. The project makes extensive use of qualitative methods to access local perception of production possibilities. Farmers in four study areas in (two each in Brazil and Paraguay) as well as the organizations and processors with whom they maintain contact are surveyed and interviewed. Included study areas facilitate comparison of responses in divergent social settings. Key indicators of ecological sustainability suggest the relative ecological impact of existing management systems that are privileged under MERCOSUR.