The savannas located in the forest-savanna ecotone in the Venezuelan Amazon have unfertile sandy ultisols and entisols which show a very low crop production unless they are supplemented with large amounts of fertiliser. In spite of this restriction, local farmers have established long-term...

The southern border of the Brazilian Amazon is one of the most sensitive areas to deforestation in Brazil. In addition to problems related to changes in land use, new issues are emerging, including climate change and its negative effects on the regional hydrological cycle. In recent years...

Over the past 15 years income sources in the Amazonian community of Carvão have diversified to include government salaries, retirement and welfare benefits, and wages from an evolving informal service sector. These non-farm incomes are now more important to household incomes than the sale of...

Peasants of the northeastern Pará cultivate cassava (manioc esculenta) using shifting cultivation. This paper discusses some factors in support of cassava production, even though it has some negative environmental impacts. These factors are the importance of cassava in the region's history,...

Using a mixed-method approach of econometric and ethnographic field research, this article examines the social and economic costs and benefits of increases in soybean production in the Brazilian Amazon. Statistical analysis suggests that increased soy production both reduces poverty indicators...