Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effects of Learning on Agroecological Conservation among Landless Farmers

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Doctoral candidate David Meek (University of Georgia), supervised by Drs. Peter Brosius and Julie Velasquez-Runk, will engage in research in an Amazonian community of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement to determine how new settlement movements impact the participants and the rainforest environments they are using. The research will focus on how informal learning, gained through social movement participation, influences agroecological knowledge, agroforestry practices, and resulting land cover changes. The researcher will combine life history interviews, participant observation of agricultural and movement activities, semi-structured interviews, and free-lists to examine whether movement participation influences levels of agroecological knowledge and agricultural practices. Spatial data, gathered from satellite imagery and participatory mapping, will be used to examine the spatial extent of agroforestry areas, and their contribution to larger processes of land cover change.The relationship between Amazonian land reform and land cover change remains highly debated among those concerned with balancing the need for economic development with the impact on the forest. This research is important as it will explore potential linkages between political ideology and informal learning about critical issues of deforestation and reforestation. Research findings will contribute to debates about the environmental impact of land reform settlements, and will thereby support efforts within civil society to achieve agrarian reform and sustainable development. It will also facilitate future comparative long-term ecological research between social movement and other agrarian settlements, informing land change science and political ecology. Empirical details on the role of informal learning, in a region characterized by lack of consistent access to formal education, will promote more effective movement planning and equitable settlement policy-making in the future.