Land holding and land cover use on an Amazonian agricultural frontier / Stephen Peter Aldrich.

Dissertação (mestrado) - Michigan State University. Departament of Geography, 2004

Over the course of the past fifteen years, studies of land cover and land use change have become a major item on the global research agenda (Geist and Lambin 2001). Of the numerous potential land cover and land use changes, few have been as intensively researched as deforestation, especially in tropical areas such as the Amazon. However, research linking human agent interactions in the Amazon with their effects on the landscape is not yet complete. This thesis investigates the link between smallholder cattle ranching and deforestation on a rapidly developing agricultural frontier in Uruará, Pará, Brazil by contrasting hollow frontier and household lifecycle processes. Many of the recent changes in household demographic and land cover and land use may indicate a hollowing frontier in Uruará. However, household lifecycle processes may also be at work in shaping this agricultural landscape.