Frontier Governance in Amazonia

Abstract

Throughout human history, the world's great forest formations have yielded to logging, cattle ranching, and agricultural expansion after transportation corridors made them accessible to frontier settlers. The Brazilian Amazon could prove to be an exception to this historical trend, however. Recent advances in Brazil's environmental management could potentially preserve most Amazonian forests while fostering economic development, as demonstrated by the Cuiabéa -Santarém highway, soon to be paved.