Beyond technological innovation for sustainability in the Amazon: governance, territorial conditions and scaling constraints in socio-ecological systems

The Amazon must reconcile ecological integrity with socioeconomic development across diverse territorial contexts. This systematic literature review examines technological innovations studied in Amazonian contexts, their sustainability outcomes, and the conditions shaping adoption, scaling and durability. Searches of Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection and SciELO identified 64 peer-reviewed publications published between 2004 and 2025, including 61 in the main synthesis and three secondary reviews analyzed separately. Because broader Amazonian variants and relaxed innovation-or-technology logic were used only in SciELO, the findings represent a delimited synthesis rather than comprehensive cross-sectoral coverage. The main-synthesis publications spanned eight domains: agriculture, digital monitoring, biodiversity-based processing, circular economy, innovation systems, essential services, forestry and aquaculture. Environmental and economic or productive outcomes were most frequently coded, but technical feasibility was demonstrated more often than realized sustainability. Only 13 publications directly evaluated a sustainability outcome; 21 measured technical performance from which sustainability was inferred; 13 reported or perceived outcomes without independent verification; ten modeled or proposed sustainability; three provided mapping or diagnostic evidence; and one combined measured performance with modeled implications. Implementation depended on public and research institutions, communities, Indigenous actors, firms and producer organizations, while remoteness, ecological variability, infrastructure, finance, markets and regulation constrained scaling. Justice, benefit-sharing and adverse outcomes remained underexamined. The sensitivity analysis retained 12 of the 13 direct-evidence studies, but modeled or proposed evidence declined from ten to four. Overall, technological innovation may support Amazonian sustainability when territorially adapted, institutionally supported, socially legitimate and capable of sustained operation beyond pilot projects.