western Amazon: the Napo deforestation front,

Although much emphasis has been given to the Brazilian Amazon in the analysis of tropical deforestation, information on other areas of the Amazon is scarce. This study examines the deforestation and level of forest fragmentation in one of the two deforestation fronts in the Amazon region outside Brazil: the Napo region of western Amazonia. Data were generated using satellite imagery for the years 1986 and 1996. Results show that while the extent and rate of deforestation in the region are important, they are less than previously reported. Forest fragmentation, however, adds a significant level of impact by affecting a very large proportion of the remaining forest cover. Better understanding of the dynamics and patterns of deforesta-tion at regional, national and global levels requires the study of a representative number of areas. A regional focus, like that used here, facilitates this because most deforestation occurs in a small number of high-intensity deforestation fronts. Ó 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. Al