The southwestern Amazon basin, centering on the Territory of Rondonia and the State of Acre, is symbolically if not exactly geographically, the Wild Wild West of Brazil's northern rainforest fron tier. In Brazil the name Rondonia evokes exaggerated images of lawlessness, land feuding, and indigent peasants in search of a homestead. Despite the problems and the perception, the region has pushed ahead, in the view of the govern ment, with large-scale deforestation and the establishment of cattle ranches and agricultural farms raising manioc, rice, bananas, and other cash crops. The mining...

The southwestern Amazon basin, centering on the Territory of Rondonia and the State of Acre, is symbolically if not exactly geographically, the Wild Wild West of Brazil's northern rainforest fron tier. In Brazil the name Rondonia evokes exaggerated images of lawlessness, land feuding, and indigent peasants in search of a homestead. Despite the problems and the perception, the region has pushed ahead, in the view of the govern ment, with large-scale deforestation and the establishment of cattle ranches and agricultural farms raising manioc, rice, bananas, and other cash crops. The mining...