Amazon Frontier

World Bank Environment Paper No. 11.Addresses issues of local governance in frontier economies in relation to environmental and political sustainability. Covers problems of mining, farming, and disincentives.

The southwestern Amazon basin, centering on the Territory of Rondönia and the State of Acre, is symbolically if not exactly geographically, the Wild Wild West of Brazil's northern rainforest fron tier. In Brazil the name Rondönia evokes exaggerated images of lawlessness, land feuding, and indigent peasants in search of a homestead. Despite the problems and the perception, the region has pushed ahead, in the view of the govern ment, with large-scale deforestation and the establishment of cattle ranches and agricultural farms raising manioc, rice, bananas, and other cash crops. The mining industry has been launched with the exploitation oftin stone, and the recent gold rush has attracted thousands of miners that are sifting alluvial deposits along the rivers for the precious ore. In an energy-short world, the region boasts of its large hydroelectric potential waiting development in the rivers falling off the Brazilian Shield and draining into the Rio Madeira. Planners are optimistic that Rondönia's resources, once developed, will more than justify, at least in this corner of the rainforest frontier, the Economic Conquest ofthe Amazon. Sandwiched between the economic take-off and the dream, however, are the biological resources - the plants and animals - that must serve as sources of energy and food until human dominated ecosystems replace naturaiones. These resources are, ofnecessity, being heavily attacked to support the shaky economy of the region, but they are very poorly understood in terms of potential productivity and proper management.

This book discusses the outcomes of more than ten years of research in the southern tracts of the Amazon region, and addresses the expansion of the agricultural frontier, consolidation of the agribusiness-based economy, and expansion of regional infrastructure (roads, dams, urban centres, etc). It combines extensive empirical evidence with the international literature on frontier-making and regional Amazonian development, and adopts a critical politico-geographical perspective that will benefit scholars in various other disciplines. This book is intended to push the current theoretical and methodological boundaries regarding the controversies and impacts of agribusiness in the region. A new international scientific network, led by the author, is investigating the broader context of the themes analysed here.

A broad arch of deforestation spans the lower Brazilian Amazon, cutting through the State of Mato Grosso. The forceful expansion of soybean plantations led by global markets is displacing family farms or incorporating them into out-growing schemes. Commodity plantations are pushing cattle ranching further into the forests. Logging is also opening up new access at the frontier. As associations endeavor to strengthen the voice of marginalized groups their role and functions continue to evolve. This report analyses eight active associations along the BR 163 highway in Mato Grosso. It assesses the factors that have allowed them to function and spread benefits to the poor. It also identifies the types of external support that have proven useful.

Research site and sample characteristics; Multivariate analysis; A fram-level bioeconomic model.

Annotation This report adds to the discussion of land use in the Brazilian Amazon. It analyzes the harmful effects of increasing levels of rainfall on agricultural settlement and productivity.