Extraction, Gender and Neoliberalism in the Western Amazon

Abstract

This chapter explores the work of Stephen Bunker through a review of the role of women in Amazonian extractive economies and how shifting ideas of development affected them in the Western Amazon. While the initial development programs for Extractive Reserves focused on green marketing, consumer coops and value added through processing carried out in an urban factory in the village of Xapuri, as structural adjustment programs gained importance, the development emphasis shifted to decentralized processing and piecemeal contracts on the individual seringal (rubber tapping estate) or in mini factories in forests. While this was an appealing approach given the kinds of development concerns at the time; non-timber forest products, income generation for women in the forest itself, and neoliberal ideologies of economic and labor decentralization, it failed to appreciate the demands and the opportunity costs on women's time in rural areas and underestimated the importance of formal employment in urban areas. The logics on which the shift was justified, enhanced production, efficiency and lower costs, did not materialize.

Citation

Hecht, S. (2005), "Extraction, Gender and Neoliberalism in the Western Amazon", Ciccantell, P.S., Smith, D.A. and Seidman, G. (Ed.) Nature, Raw Materials, and Political Economy (Research in Rural Sociology and Development, Vol. 10), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 253-285. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1057-1922(05)10012-2