Browsing by Autor "Jeffrey Hoelle"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Regional integration and local change: road paving, community connectivity, and social–ecological resilience in a tri-national frontier, southwestern Amazonia
(Springer Science+Business Media, 2011) Stephen G. Perz; Liliana Cabrera; Lucas Araújo Carvalho; Jorge Castillo; Rosmery Chacacanta; Rosa E. Cossío; Yeni Franco Solano; Jeffrey Hoelle; Leonor Mercedes Perales; Israel Puerta
Trans-Boundary Infrastructure and Changes in Rural Livelihood Diversity in the Southwestern Amazon: Resilience and Inequality
(Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2015) Stephen G. Perz; Flávia Leite; Lauren Griffin; Jeffrey Hoelle; Martha Rosero; Lucas Resende de Carvalho; Jorge Castillo; Daniel Rojas
Infrastructure has long been a priority in development policy, but there is debate over infrastructure impacts. Whereas economic studies show reductions in poverty, social research has documented growing income inequality. We suggest that a focus on livelihoods permits a bridge between the two literatures by highlighting decisions by households that may capture economic benefits but also yield social inequalities. We therefore take up two questions. First is whether new infrastructure allows households to diversify their livelihoods, where diversity begets resilience and thus affords livelihood sustainability. Second is whether households with more diverse livelihoods exhibit greater increases in livelihood diversity, which would widen livelihood inequalities. We take up the case of the Inter-Oceanic Highway, a trans-boundary infrastructure project in the southwestern Amazon. Findings from a rural household survey for the first question show a strong effect of accessibility on increasing livelihood diversity in areas receiving infrastructure upgrades, an indication that infrastructure fosters household resilience. However, results regarding the second question indicate that households with more diversified livelihoods also exhibit larger increments in diversity, which implies growing livelihood inequality. There remains a need to account for inequalities in livelihood diversity, since less diversified households benefit less from new infrastructure and remain more exposed to risks to their livelihoods.
Trans-boundary infrastructure, access connectivity, and household land use in a tri-national frontier in the Southwestern Amazon
(Taylor & Francis, 2014) Stephen G. Perz; Andrea Chavez; Rosa E. Cossío; Jeffrey Hoelle; Flávia Leite; Karla da Silva Rocha; Rafael O. Rojas; Alexander Shenkin; Lucas Araújo Carvalho; Jorge Castillo
The land science literature has consistently documented the importance of infrastructure for land use. Less attention has gone to land use around national borders receiving trans-boundary infrastructure upgrades for cross-border integration. We take up the case of the Inter-Oceanic Highway, a trans-boundary road being paved in the tri-national ‘MAP’ frontier of the southwestern Amazon. We draw on a tri-national survey of households in rural communities across the MAP frontier to evaluate the effects of access connectivity on land use. At the time of fieldwork, paving was complete in Acre/Brazil, underway in Madre de Dios/Peru, and planned in Pando/Bolivia. This permits a tri-national comparative analysis. The results confirm different effects of access connectivity on land use by paving status; further, they also document cross-border processes stemming from trans-boundary infrastructure that affect land use. The findings call for more attention to the impacts of regional integration initiatives on landscapes.