WITH ONE of the central concepts of environmental discourse - that of ecological sustainability - we analyse the social diversity of contemporary Amazonia, presenting classification of Amazonian social segments according to the degree of environmental sustainability of their productive activities. With no intention of covering all of Amazonian social diversity, we identify nine of its main segments: Indians of sporadic commerce, Indians of recurrent commerce, Indians dependent on mercantile production, traditional peasants, traditional ranchers, recently established ranchers, frontier migrants, large scale entrepreneurial projects, and itinerant extraction producers. The analysis of each socio-environmental category takes into account the characteristics of their economic orientation and ecological cultures. Besides these features, the complex interaction among multiple asocial and environmental factors is demonstrated to explain the specific ecological behaviour displayed by each social segment. With this exercise, some consecrated stereotypes are proven false, such as those that indicate negative correlations between sustainability and demographic density or poverty, and positive correlations between sustainability and Indian identity. We conclude by pointing out the importance of following broad-spectrum analyses in order to understand the socio-environmental diversity of contemporary Amazonia.
Amazonia; ecological sustainability; socio-environmental diversity; ecological behaviour
