| The recent transformation of Brazil's biologically diverse tropical savanna, the Cerrado, captured the attention of many environmentalists and scientists during the last decade. The problem of Cerrado conversion since 1970 was explored by studying land cover change, private colonization, and agricultural development in eastern Mato Grosso state. Satellite remote sensing data for the study region revealed significant vegetation loss and regeneration. Overall Cerrado regeneration represents a large portion of change, offsetting the larger area of gross Cerrado loss. Rates of net Cerrado loss (20.4%), Cerrado regeneration (50%) and gross Cerrado loss (70.4%) were obtained revealing a mosaic of land covers. Private colonization, defined as the use of firms and cooperatives to organize land allocation, production, and services, initiated the process of environmental change in the study region. In 1972 private colonization attracted settlers, primarily from northwestern Rio Grande do Sul, to eastern Mato Grosso. Land-title demand, property rights, transaction costs, and social capital were studied as the underlying factors of agricultural settlement and environmental change. Land conversion and agricultural development continued throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Local resource-access regimes, including land ownership, agricultural cooperatives, and land-leasing arrangements, became the institutional and organizational basis determining the continued pattern of land conversion and land-use change. |
