ABSTRACT
References ................................................................................................................................... 318
The conversion of primary forest for subsistence agriculture, industrial logging, and
pasture establishment continues to be the predominant cause of tropical deforestation
(Laurance, 1999). In the last 30 years, an estimated 58.8 million ha of primary forest
alone 2004). Of this, 24 million ha
converted to pastures during the 1970s and 1980s, making this the most common land-use
change in the Amazon region (Serra
˜
o et al., 1995).
