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DEVELOPMENT AND DISTURBANCE IN AMAZON FORESTS Contrasting Impressions 6 2 The rain forests of the Amazon Basin cover approximately 5.8 x 10 km (Salati and Vose 1984). Flying over even just part of this basin, one gazes hour after hour upon this seemingly infinite blanket of green. The impression of immen sity is similar when viewed from the Amazon River itself, or from its tributar ies. From a hammock on the shaded deck of a riverboat, the immensity of the forest presents an incredible monotony as one view of the shoreline blends unnoticeably into another. From both perspectives, the overwhelming reaction to the sea of trees that stretches from horizon to horizon is a sense of the vastness of the rain forest. In September 1985, I got a different impression of the rain forest. Several students and I journeyed in a self-propelled car along the single-track railroad that stretches almost 1000 km from the Carajas iron ore mine in the rain forest of Para State, Brazil, all the way to Sao Luis on the coast (Fig. 1.1).
List of contents
1. Introduction Development and Disturbance in Amazon Forests.- Case Studies.- 2. Shifting Cultivation Slash and Burn Agriculture Near San Carlos de Rio Negro, Venezuela.- 3. Recovery Following Shifting Cultivation A Century of Succession in the Upper Rio Negro.- 4. Shifting Cultivation Where Land Is Limited Campa Indian Agriculture in the Gran Pajonal of Peru.- 5. Deforestation for Sovereignty Over Remote Frontiers Government-Sponsored Pastures in Venezuela Near the Brazilian Border.- 6. Permanent Plots for Agriculture and Forestry.- 7. Plantation Forestry The Jari Project, Pará, Brazil.- 8. Large-Scale Development in Eastern Amazonia Pasture Management and Environmental Effects Near Paragominas, Pará.- 9. Conclusion Comparison and Evaluation of Case Studies.
