The first collective effort involved seven communities from the Ituqui settlement and dealt with assurance of property rights of the upland ecosystem. After approximately 15 years of land movement, the upland ecosystem was privatized through agrarian reform by the end of the 1980s. In the mid-1990s, the second collective action took place in one community whose residents had participated in the first collective endeavor. The second group effort involved only one-third of the households and its main purpose was to guarantee property rights to the floodplain ecosystem. Household analysis uncovers heterogeneity in terms of household structure and economy, which creates different incentives for people to cooperate or not.
Historical accounts reveal that social capital facilitated involvement in the collective action.
Finally, in places where individuals explore more than one system in an integrated production economy, the actions taken in one ecosystem may affect other related ecosystems. Analysis of structure and composition of the upland forest and remote-sensing analysis of patterns of land use indicate that although the target of the collective action is the floodplain, the upland is indirectly affected. In this case, opening a pasture and removing wood species to subsidize cattle activity in the floodplain creates a consequential effect on the upland. To conclude, this study shows the importance to consider multi-scale analysis in studies of collective action and conservation.