Environmental costs

INCORA and Bank evaluation documents coincide in concluding that "the loss of valuable timber by burning remains as one of the leading project costs" which, unfortunately, was not calculated at the time of the project's appraisal or evaluation, "for lack of reliable data and precise orientation for this type of analysis." The Bank recommends devising a methodology for appraising this cost in future projects of this nature.

After surveying the existing evidence of the greater costs to society-besides the "burnt timber," one cannot understand the prevailing view of government and World Bank experts who prefer separating or isolating production elements from the closely knit environmental chain. It is evident that from the beginning of the project the production component was separated from the conservation component. By being assigned separate funds and responsibilities for production and conservation research from the initiation of the project, both researchers and extension agents were prevented from developing management techniques and recommendations geared toward long-term self-sustaining production. This approach to the "stabilization of rural settlements" is definitely responsible for the presently distorted view of the Amazon frontier, where both the fragile nature of its soils and the indispensable nutrient replenishment chain are not properly appraised and thus their economic role in production schemes is not thoroughly recognized.