Land 2014, 3, 981-1014; doi:10.3390/land3030981 OPEN ACCESS land ISSN 2073-445X www.mdpi.com/journal/land/ Article Evolution of Land Use in the Brazilian Amazon: From Frontier Expansion to Market Chain Dynamics Luciana S. Soler 1,2,*, Peter H. Verburg 3 and Diógenes S. Alves 4 1 Land Dynamics Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands 2 National Early Warning and Monitoring Centre of Natural Disasters (Cemaden), Parque Tecnológico, Av. Dr. Altino Bondensan 500, São José dos Campos 12247, Brazil 3 Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1087, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands; E-Mail:
[email protected] 4 Image Processing Division, National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Av. dos Astronautas 1758, São José dos Campos 12227, Brazil; E-Mail:
[email protected] * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
[email protected]; Tel.: +55-12-3186-9236. Received: 31 December 2013; in revised form: 30 July 2014 / Accepted: 7 August 2014 / Published: 19 August 2014 Abstract: Agricultural census data and fieldwork observations are used to analyze changes in land cover/use intensity across Rondônia and Mato Grosso states along the agricultural frontier in the Brazilian Amazon. Results show that the development of land use is strongly related to land distribution structure. While large farms have increased their share of annual and perennial crops, small and medium size farms have strongly contributed to the development of beef and milk market chains in both Rondônia and Mato Grosso. Land use intensification has occurred in the form of increased use of machinery, labor in agriculture and stocking rates of cattle herds.