title: Colonization lessons from a tropical forest.
abstract: The decade-old Transamazon Highway provides a useful stage for examining some of the major issues related to frontier conquest and the impact of pioneer settlement on one of the world's richest biomes. The highway project is an ambitious colonization scheme and the lessons that can be drawn from it, ranging from the environmental effects of stripping back the tree cover to the spread of diseases, will be useful in guiding development policy in other tropical regions.
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Smith