The Development of Amazonia

Probably no region of Latin America received as much attention as Amazonia did during the past decade. Central governments viewed this enormous, yet sparsely inhabited area as a place where development could solve multiple problems. However, the ill-conceived plans and techniques employed in the development of the region have become the focus of concern and debates. Current discussions mainly question the strategies for development, their effects on native inhabitants and on the environment, and the prospects for the region. Among the conferences held on the area and its problems, one of the most notable was the Conference on the Development of Amazonia in Seven Countries, held at the University of Cambridge in September, 1979.1 The conference was characterized by interdisciplinary examination of multiple issues of development; the meeting served to identify important problems, trends, and possible solutions. The topics covered at the conference can be categorized in four themes: ecological issues, characteristics of development, problems of colonization, and effects on Amerindians. Concerted efforts to open the tropical lowlands began in the 1950s. Extension of roads, planned small-scale colonization projects, and oil-drilling activities in the 1960s and 1970s were the mechanisms for rapid occupation of the upper Amazon. In the Brazilian Amazonia, major inroads by subsistence farmers and cattle ranchers occurred after 1960 with the construction of the Belem-Brasilia and Cuiaba-Porto Velho highways. Two programs accelerated the development process after 1971: the ambitious, but short-lived National Integration Plan that led to the construction of the Transamazon and CuiabaSantar6m highways as well as the establishment of planned colonies along them; and the Polamazonia program devised to promote regional growth by attracting large agricultural, mining, and lumbering concerns through tax exemptions, financial incentives, and credit availability

Amazon rainforest · Biology · Geography · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Ecology

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