ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to explore in general terms the likely course of Amazonian development over the rest of the 1980s. Despite the intense developmental efforts of the past two decades, the Brazilian Amazon remains, to a large degree, an undeveloped frontier region. Islands of development may be observed in the region's main population centers and around occurrences of better soils, minerals, and other natural resources, but an integrated, self-sustaining regional economy has not yet emerged. In principle, the guidelines for Amazon policy in the first half of the 1980s are contained in the Third National Development Plan. The Carajas program is by far the largest undertaking ever attempted in the region, and will surely dominate the economy of eastern Amazonia for many decades to come. A development model of a quite different sort is envisaged for the so-called Northwest of Brazil, actually a sub-region of south-western Amazonia comprising Rondonia and parts of Mato Grosso.
