The Causes of Land Degradation along "Spontaneously" Expanding Agricultural Frontiers in the Third World

The extent and consequences of deforestation and related environmental degradation in the developing world have become the subject of considerable debate and concern. There is disagreement about how rapidly tree-covered land near the equator is being cleared or otherwise disturbed. Likewise, tropical deforestation's impacts have proven difficult to identify and to evaluate. By contrast, the contribution small farmers make to deforestation is universally understood. Land clearing has been more rapid in Rondonia, for example, than anywhere else in the Brazilian Amazon and more than half the deforested land in that state is divided among small agricultural holdings (Browder 1988; Mahar 1989). Throughout the developing world, small farmers are primary agents of deforestation.