A Disturbing Synergism Between Cattle Ranch Burning Practices and Selective Tree Harvesting in the Eastern Amazon

Abstract

The combination of pasture burning to control weeds and selective timber harvesting is resulting in the spread of wildfires in Amazonian rain forests near Paragominas, Para, Brazil. We visited 15 cattle ranchers who had permitted selective logging on their land and found that eight of the affected forests had burned shortly after logging. In selectively logged, high forests, fire-induced mortality was greatest for trees less than 10 cm DBH, whereas in low and second-growth forests, nearly all trees were killed. Fires affect regeneration mechanisms such that the more severely forests are burned, the more complex and prolonged will be the pattern of succession.