Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-10T23:30:09.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Will urbanization cause deforested areas to be abandoned in Brazilian Amazonia?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2008

PHILIP M. FEARNSIDE
PHILIP M. FEARNSIDE*
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia-INPA, Av. André Araújo, 2936 cp 478 69.011-970, Manaus-Amazonas, Brazil Tel: +55 92 3643 1822 Fax: +55 92 3642 8909 e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Wright and Muller-Landau (2006) proposed that rural–urban migration could reduce tropical forest loss worldwide and allow secondary forest to occupy abandoned clearings, thereby reducing the expected magnitude of tropical species extinctions. However, the usefulness of this global generalization is highly dependent on its being correct for Brazilian Amazonia, which has the world's largest remaining area of tropical forest. Among the features of the deforestation process that make urbanization an unlikely mechanism for land abandonment in Brazil is the fact that most deforestation is done by ranchers rather than by shifting cultivators. A family of shifting cultivators is only capable of farming a limited area and cannot greatly expand the area it cultivates if additional land becomes available. Ranchers, by contrast, can occupy huge areas and expand their holdings when the opportunity arises. Were part of the population to leave for the cities their land would usually be bought by neighbouring ranchers who would maintain and expand the deforested landscape. As Wright and Muller-Landau (2006) predicted, their interpretations have generated considerable controversy (Brook et al. 2006; Gardner et al. 2007; Laurance 2006; Sloan 2007). Only part of this controversy will be considered here, namely the expectation that rural population in tropical areas will decline, allowing secondary forests to regrow in large areas of abandoned farmland. Specifically, the present paper will consider the applicability of the Wright/Muller-Landau hypothesis to Brazilian Amazonia.

Type
Comment
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , September 2008 , pp. 197 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brazil, IBGE (2000) Censo Demográphico, Dados Distritais: XI Recenseamento Geral do Brasil 2000. Banco de dados agregados: censo demográfico e contagem da população. IBGE, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [www document]. URL http://www.sidra.ibge.gov.br/bda/tabela/protabl.asp?z=cd&o=3&i=PGoogle Scholar
Brazil, IBGE (2008) IBGE Cicades, população e domicílios. Censo 2000 com divisão territorial 2001. IBGE, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [www document]. URL http://www.ibge.gov.br/cidadesat/topwindow.htm?1Google Scholar
Brook, B.W., Bradshaw, C.J.A., Koh, L.P. & Sodhl, N.S. (2006) Momentum drives the crash: mass extinction in the tropics. Biotropica 38: 302–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Browder, J.O. & Godfrey, B.J. (1997) Rainforest Cities: Urbanization, Development and Globalization of the Brazilian Amazon. New York, USA: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Dean, W. (1995) With Broadax and Firebrand: The Destruction of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Berkeley, California, USA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
FAO (1993) Forest resources assessment 1990: tropical countries. FAO Forestry Paper 112, FAO, Rome, Italy:.Google Scholar
FAO (2006) Forest resources assessment 2005: progress towards sustainable forest management. FAO Forestry Paper 147. FAO, Rome, Italy.Google Scholar
Fearnside, P.M. (1983) Land-use trends in the Brazilian Amazon region as factors in accelerating deforestation. Environmental Conservation 10: 141–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fearnside, P.M. (1986) Human Carrying Capacity of the Brazilian Rainforest. New York, USA: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Fearnside, P.M. (1989) Ocupação Humana de Rondônia: Impactos, Limites e Planejamento. Brasília, DF, Brazil: Conselho Nacional do Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq).Google Scholar
Fearnside, P.M. (1993) Deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia: The effect of population and land tenure. Ambio 22: 537–545.Google Scholar
Fearnside, P.M. (2001 a) Land-tenure issues as factors in environmental destruction in Brazilian Amazonia: the case of southern Pará. World Development 29: 1361–1372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fearnside, P.M. (2001 b) Soybean cultivation as a threat to the environment in Brazil. Environmental Conservation 28: 23–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, T.A., Barlow, J., Parry, L.W. & Peres, C.A. (2007) Predicting the uncertain future of tropical forest species in a data vacuum. Biotropica 39: 25–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laurance, W.F. (2006) Have we overstated the tropical biodiversity crisis? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 22: 65–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Razera, A. (2005) Dinâmica do desmatamento em uma nova fronteira do sul do Amazonas: Análise da pecuária de corte no município do Apuí. Masters dissertation. Tropical Forest Sciences, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA) and Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM), Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: 100 pp.Google Scholar
Sawyer, D. (1984) Frontier expansion and retraction in Brazil. In: Frontier Expansion in Amazonia, ed. Schmink, M. & Wood, C.H., pp. 180–203. Gainesville, Florida, USA: University of Florida Press.Google Scholar
Sawyer, D. (2001) Evolução demográfica, qualidade de vida e desmatamento na Amazônia. In: Causas e Dinâmica do Desmatamento na Amazônia, ed Fleischresser, V., pp. 73–98. Brasília, DF, Brazil: Ministério do Meio Ambiente.Google Scholar
Sloan, S. (2007) Fewer people may not mean more forest for Latin American forest frontiers. Biotropica 39: 443–446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smeraldi, R. & May, P.H. (2008) O Reino do Gado: Uma Nova Fase da Pecuarização da Amazônia. São Paulo, Brazil: Amigos da Terra-Amazônia Brasileira.Google Scholar
Wright, S.J. & Muller-Landau, H.C. (2006) The future of tropical species. Biotropica 38: 287–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar