Although deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon are well known, the extent of the area affected by forest degradation is a notable data gap, with implications for conservation biology, carbon cycle science, and international policy. We generated a long-term spatially quantified assessment of forest degradation for the entire Brazilian Amazon from 1992 to 2014. We measured and mapped the full range of activities that degrade forests and evaluated the relationship with deforestation. From 1992 to 2014, the total area of degraded forest was 337,427 square kilometers (km2), compared with 308,311 km2 that were deforested. Forest degradation is a separate and increasing form of forest disturbance, and the area affected is now greater than that due to deforestation.

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The socioeconomic and ecological aspects of land. use change are interrelated, especially in the Brazilian Amazorg where immigrants are rapidly cutting the forest to establish farm~ A computer simulation has been developed that projects iand-use changeg carbon releas¢ and the time a family can remain on a farm lot as a function of initial soil and vegetation condition~ market and road infrastruc-tur~ and decision vartablex The model simulates extremes of land-use practices and typical land-use conditions for central Rond6ni~ Brazil Typical land-use practices in Ron-dOnia are based on published accounts of farmers" activitie£ The most severe practices are defined based on extreme landmanagement conditions along the Transamazon Highway, The best land.use practices are innovative farming techniques that use a diversity of perennial crop~ Model projections using the typical land-use scenario produce changes in land cleare~ carbon relea$¢ and farmer turnover rates rep.

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