Figure 8.7
GEO-GRAPHIC: Economic development of the Amazon. Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest often follows the sequence outlined here. Increasingly, the slash-and-burn step is being skipped, as commercial logging is followed directly by commercial-scale cattle ranching and agriculture. Between 2000 and 2006, an average of approximately 21,000 km2 (8,100 mi2) of Brazilian rainforest was lost each year.(1. © Stuart Wilson/Photo Researchers RM/Getty Images; 2. © Colin Jones/Impact/HIP/The Image Works; 3. © Guido van der Werf, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam)