PASTURE-LED TO LOGGING-LED DEFORESTATION IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON - THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE

Developments in the past two decades reveal that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has become a complex process involving a multiplicity of agents and means of change, Along with large-scale clearing of for ests for cattle ranches and swidden agriculture (practiced by displace d peasants and indigent immigrants), logging-led clearing has become t he major threat to the forests of Amaronia. The complexity of this env ironmental change is analyzed by pointing out the deficiencies of neo Malthusian population dynamics and the 'tragedy of the commons' theori es. A new theory of socio-ecological dynamics of environmental change, proposed by Peter Taylor and Paul Gracia-Barrios, has been proposed a s an alternative, and, finally, some possible solutions to prevent def orestation have been proposed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All righ ts reserved.