Deforestation and Land Use in the Amazon

This volume has the strength of bringing together a diverse set of disciplines not just to juxtapose different approaches to the longstanding pattern/process relationship (which so much of the literature does) but to cut across the thorny attributes of spatial and temporal scale, which so often divide remotesensors from social scientists.Lowell Pritchard, Jr., Emory UniversityThe Amazonian territories of Brazil, Bolivia, and Ecuador encompass nearly half of the worlds remaining tropical rainforest and contain a wealth of biodiversity whose value we have only begun to appreciate.Deforestation and Land Use in the Amazon is an authoritative analysis of the socioeconomic and biophysical factors operating at local, national, and global levels that serve to promote deforestation in this delicate region.The leading scholars and specialists in this volume, from both Latin America and the United States, present a uniquely interdisciplinary study of the historical, economic, and political causes accounting for the pace and pattern of the areas deforestation. Their collected research provides a highly instructive sampler of the best and most useful approaches to land use and deforestation across the broad range of disciplines, agencies, and orientations involved, from the longterm impact of road construction projects, colonization schemes, and commodity prices to immediate concerns over quality of life, water availability, and climate variation.Heavily illustrated with numerous maps, tables, and charts, the book is an unmatched resource for planners, preservationists, regulatory agencies, demographers, and anyone interested in this environmentally strategic part of the world.ContentsIntroduction: Land Use and Deforestation in the Amazon, by Charles H. WoodPart I. National Policies and Regional Patterns1. Spatial Regression Analysis of Deforestation in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, by David Kaimowitz, Patricia Mendez, Atie Puntodewo, and Jerry Vanclay2. Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Lowland Bolivia, by Pablo Pacheco3. An Analysis of the Geographical Patterns of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon in the Period 19911996, by Diogenes S. Alves4. Population Growth and Net Migration in the Brazilian Legal Amazon, 19701996, by Stephen G. PerzPart II. Land Use Decisions and Deforestation5. The Colonist Footprint: Toward a Conceptual Framework of Land Use and Deforestation Trajectories among Small Farmers in the Amazonian Frontier, by Eduardo S. Brondizio, Stephen D. McCracken, Emilio F. Moran, Donald R. Nelson, Andrea D. Siqueira, and Carlos RodriguezPedraza6. Land Use Patterns on an Agricultural Frontier in Brazil: Insights and Examples from a Demographic Perspective, by Stephen D. McCracken, Andrea D. Siqueira, Emilio F. Moran, and Eduardo S. Brondizio7. Trajectories of Land Use: Soils, Succession, and Crop Choice, by Emilio F. Moran, Eduardo S. Brondzio, and Stephen D. McCracken8. Reading Colonist Landscapes: Social Factors Influencing Land Use Decisions by Small Farmers in the Brazilian Amazon, by John O. Browder9. Endogenous Patterns and Processes of Settler Land Use and Forest Change in the Ecuadorian Amazon, by Francisco Pichon, Catherine Marquette, Laura Murphy, and Richard BilsborrowPart III. Fires, Pastures, and Deforestation10. Investigating Positive Feedbacks in the F