TROPICAL RAINFORESTS: Imperiled Riches—Threatened Rainforests
FAO 1997: Regional forest change, 1980-1990 (SOFO 1997 21)
"Changes in forests in Africa are dominated by transition from closed forest, through intermediary stages of depletion, to shrub and short fallow. This would indicated an extension of subsistence farming under the pressure of rural population growth.""Changes in forests in Latin America are dominated by a more abrupt change involving deforestation from closed forest to other land cover, seemingly due to the affect of centrally planned operations such as government resettlement schemes, large-scale cattle ranching and hydroelectric reservoirs."
"Forests in Asia are undergoing two types of changes of nearly equal measure: gradual changes as a result of rural population pressure (i.e. intensification and expansion of shifting cultivation practices); and abrupt changes due to centrally-planned operations including government resettlement schemes and large plantation programmes."
Continued: Economic Restructuring