ce agriculture; 3) infrastructure improvements; 4) commercial agriculture; 5) logging; and 6) oil exploration (p. 2). Commercial logging is the biggest root cause of deforestation. More than two million hectares of the Amazon are being cleared annually, an increasing threat to climate from the lack of forest to absorb carbon dioxide ("Roads," 2001). According to Lee (2002) forests and their soils hold approximately 40 percent of the earth's "terrestrial carbon" (p. 7). In addition to commercial logging, illegal logging and clearing of land are rampant in the region.
Major projects initiated by the governments in the region, like logging, colonization, and commercial agriculture have required infrastructure developments also leading to deforestation. Bunyard (2002) argues that many of the projects will serve to exacerbate the problem, like "new mining projects, lumber extraction, and major industrial projects" (p. 33). Brazil's government allocated $40 billion during the last six years of the 1990s to build highwa
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