Abstract
In the Brazilian Amazon mass deforestation has resulted from a sequenceof road building, extractive logging, and pasture development during the pastthree decades. Ranchers have consolidated small agricultural holdings, pushingfarmers to move to forest frontiers or urban fringes, prompting furtherdeforestation and social instability. In response to this conversion ofAmazonian forests, the authors sought to identify both economically viable andmore sustainable development alternatives within the Brazilian state ofPará. There, local farmers of Japanese descent have developed a varietyof agroforestry systems in which 10 to 20 hectare (ha) fields yieldincomes comparable to 400 to 1,200 ha pastures. In addition, suchcrop fields generate substantially more rural employment per hathan do pastures. Ongoing forest conversion to pasture is clearly not a productof sound economic decision making. Improved land zoning and public policiescould favor agroforestry over further pasture expansion, stabilizing ruralpopulations while helping to conserve the Amazon's remaining forests.
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Yamada, M., Gholz, H.L. An evaluation of agroforestry systems as a rural development option for the Brazilian Amazon. Agroforestry Systems 55, 81–87 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020523107243
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020523107243