We analyse the transformations in indigenous resource management due to urbanization and migratory flows in the Upper Rio Negro, Northwest Amazon. Data were obtained from ethnographic and agro-economic research, combined with a GIS analysis of population, land tenure and landscape distribution in the peri-urban zone of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, the main town of the region. Each indigenous community is associated with a traditional territory, within which are articulated many kinds of resource use rights, ranging from individual exclusive ownership to common property. In the peri-urban area, private ownership has become the main land-use right. Due to the increasing scarcity of available resources around São Gabriel, newly arrived indigenous families have to negotiate land-use rights within their large kinship networks and to resort to a multilocal strategy. This multilocal land-use system may be seen as an expression of the adaptation of traditional natural resources management.
common property; Indigenous Land; urbanization; multi-sited households; Brazil
