Frontier Advance, Deforestation, and Land Ownership in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

"This paper sets out to analyze the recent changes in the demographic behavior and economic performance of frontier agents that have tended to influence and redefine the motives that lead to concentrated land ownership in the Brazilian Amazon. The paper argues that deforestation by small farmers has been responding to local conditions that reward speculation and promote concentrated land ownership. Without new policies designed to change these conditions, therefore, the 1990s will probably witness continued deforestation."