Protected areas are a cornerstone of forest conservation in developing countries. Yet we know little about their effects on forest cover change or the socioeconomic status of local communities, and even less about the relationship between these effects. This paper assesses whether 'win-win'...

More cattle, less deforestation? Land use intensification in the Amazon is an unexpected phenomenon. Theories of hollow frontier, speculative behaviour and boom-bust all share the prediction that livestock production will remain largely extensive. Yet between 1996 and 2006 productivity of cattle...

Currently, the region named Brazilian Legal Amazon (BLA) represents the agricultural frontier of Brazil, and it concentrates the deforestation processes, so-called arc of deforestation. This region covers the total area of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima, and Tocantins, and...

Nearly 90 percent of agricultural land in the Brazilian Amazon is used for pasture, or has been cleared and left unused. Pasture on average is used with very low productivity. Analysis based on census tract data shows that agricultural conversion of forested areas in the wetter western Amazon...