Proposed session: Understanding challenges and opportunities facing a transition to more sustainable land-use systems in the Eastern Amazon Fostering transitions towards more sustainable systems of land-use is one of the most significant scientific and political challenges of the 21st century. The introduction of new laws and development of new regulatory and institutional frameworks can be critical in making such transitions possible. Yet acceptance of any new regulation is often met with significant resistance, with past behaviour and social norms resulting in poor acceptance and internalization by relevant stakeholders, and hence low levels of compliance. Major policy efforts have been made by the Brazilian government in the past ten years to bring about a transition in the Amazon away from a process of land occupation and development that is dependent upon deforestation. In the last decade the federal government has initiated a much stronger program of enforcement to improve compliance, including through new satellite monitoring tools, increased field visits and fines, and restrictions on private landowners to access commodity markets and credit. Together these measures have contributed to a reduction in deforestation of c.80% in the Brazilian Amazon between 2004 and 2013. Here we present a critical appraisal of the extent to which environmental regulations can trigger desirable change and show that there are many barriers which still need to be overcome to foster lasting transitions to more socially and ecologically resilient land management systems. Successful compliance depends not only on carefully designed policy measures but also on the ability and motivations of individual landowners and farmers to change. We address this issue using a unique dataset collected by the Sustainable Amazon Network in two municipalities in the Eastern Amazon, Paragominas and Santarem, each characterised by a distinct history of changes in local environmental governance. By cha