Can pasture intensification discourage deforestation in the Amazon and Pantanal regions of Brazil? / Philip M. Fearnside.

"Paper for presentation at the Conference on Patterns and Processes of Land-Use and Forest Change, 23-26 march 1999, University of Florida.".

Brazilian agricultural authorities have been promoting intensification of cattle production as a means of discouraging deforestation in Amazonia and in the Pantanal wetlands. Pasture intensification is done through applications of fertilizers and herbicides, replanting with better grass varieties, genetic improvement of cattle herds and better regulation of stocking densities and rotation schedules. In the case of the Pantanal, the government agriculturall research institution (EMBRAPA) has recommended that properties plant 10% of their area in improved pasture, even though some forest on high non-flooded ground within each property must be sacrificed to do this. In Amazonia, limits on financial resources and on physical inputs such as phosphates are not likely to permit maintenance of vast areas of pasture under these systems. The search for effective measures to discourage deforestation should focus on the suite of motivations that lead ranchers to invest in forest clearing, including factors unrelated to producing beef. Factors such as land speculation and land tenure security can override expected effects of subsidizing pasture intensification.