The Atlantic rainforest of southern Bahia is one of the last remnants of the lowland forest of eastern Brazil that once covered the entire coastal area from Rio Grande do Norte to Rio Grande do Sul (lat 8 Њ -28 Њ S) and has been deforested to a small fraction of its original cover (1-12%). All recent vegetation surveys have been based on optical satellite data, which is hampered by cloud cover and by southern Bahia's intricate mix of forest patches with other tree crops, especially cocoa. We describe the application of radar remote-sensing data to distinguish forest patches from cocoa planted in the shade of natural-forest trees. Radar, unlike optical sensors, is not obstructed by cloud cover and can acquire information about forest structure by penetrating into the vegetation canopy. The vegetation map generated from radar data clearly separates forest patches based on the degree of structural disturbance such as the density of shaded trees, the openness of the canopy, and the density of the monodominant Erythyrina shaded trees. The structural classification based on the radar data, and shown on the map, can help researchers assess the degree of fragmentation of the original Atlantic coastal forest and delineate areas of less disturbance with higher potential for conservation of biodiversity. This information can then be applied to conservation planning, especially the design and monitoring of nature reserves and the modeling of biological corridors.

The causes of the degradation of Brazilian Atlantic Forest in the south-eastem cocoa region of the State of Bahia are investigated by means of a survey on cocoa planter's forest conservation attitudes. Large land-owners were found to be responsible for most of the forest clearing that occurred in the past: cocoa prices compensated investment in the expansion of the area planted to cocoa on planters' forested land-holdings. Large land-owners were also responsible for most of the recent forest clearing, which occurred simply to sell trees in order to eam income while cocoa prices were depressed. Large land-owners are nonetheless more interested than small land-owners in conserving some of their forest. Policies encouraging private forest conservation, and the development of forest-conserving agricultural alternatives for the landless poor are recommended.

Land-reform and environmental movements, revitalized by the democratization of civil society inBrazil in the 1990s, found their objectives in conflict over forested parcels that settlers want for conversion to agriculture but that are important for wildlife conservation. In the Atlantic Forest, where 95% of the forest is gone, we reviewed three cases of Brazilian nongovernmental organization (NGOs) engagement with the landreform movement with respect to forest remnants neighboring protected areas that have insufficient habitat for the long-term survival of unique endangered species. In the Pontal do Paranapanema (São Paulo), Poço das Antas (Rio de Janeiro), and southern Bahia, environmental NGOs have supported agricultural alternatives that improve livelihood options and provide incentives for habitat conservation planning. Where land-reform groups were better organized, technical cooperation on settlement agriculture permitted the exploration of mutual interests in conciliating the productive landscape with conservation objectives. Processes of regular consultation among NGOs, environmental agencies, and the private sector revealed that there was less zerosum conflict over the same lands than commonly perceived. In both groups, technicians found forested lands less suitable for small-scale agriculture, and leaders took risks to justify and support claims to alternative existing agricultural lands. Based on the cases we examined, the construction of landscapes with both forest stewardship and poverty-reducing agrarian reform faces continued obstacles from contradictory agrarian and environmental sector policies and inadequate economic incentives for forest stewardship on private lands. Reforma Agraria y Conservación de Biodiversidad en Brasil en los 1990s: Conflictos y la Articulación de Intereses MutuosResumen: La reforma agraria y los movimientos ambientales, revitalizados por la democratización de la sociedad civil brasileña en los 1990s, basan sus objetivos en conflictos sobre parcelas de bosque que los colonos solicitan para conversión a la agricultura pero que son importantes para la conservación de vida silvestre. En el Bosque Atlántico, donde ha desaparecido 95% del bosque, revisamos tres casos de participación de organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG) en el movimiento de reforma agraria con respecto a remanentes de bosque aledaños aáreas protegidas que tienen insuficiente hábitat para la supervivencia a largo plazo de especiesúnicas en peligro. En el Pontal de Paranapanema (São Paulo), Poço das Antas (Río de Janeiro) y el sur de Bahía, las ONG ambientales han apoyado alternativas agrícolas que han mejorado las opciones de vida y proporcionado incentivos para la planificación de conservación del hábitat. En los lugares con mejor organización de los grupos de reforma agraria, la cooperación técnica en la agricultura permitió la exploración de intereses mutuos en la conciliación del paisaje productivo con los objetivos de conservación. Los procesos regulares de consulta entre las ONG, las agencias ambienta...

ABSTRACT. Conservation in densely settled biodiversity hotspots often requires setting up reserve networks that maintain sufficient contiguous habitat to support viable species populations. Because it is difficult to secure landholder compliance with a tightly constrained reserve network design, attention has shifted to voluntary incentive mechanisms, such as purchase of conservation easements by reverse auction or through a fixed-price offer. These mechanisms carry potential advantages of transparency, simplicity, and low cost. However, uncoordinated individual response to these incentives has been assumed incompatible with the conservation goal of viability, which depends on contiguous habitat and biodiversity representation. We model such incentives for southern Bahia in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, one of the biologically richest and most threatened global biodiversity hotspots. Here, forest cover is spatially autocorrelated and associated with depressed land values, a situation that may be characteristic of longsettled areas with forests fragmented by agriculture. We find that in this situation, a voluntary incentive system can yield a reserve network characterized by large, viable patches of contiguous forest, and representation of subregions with distinct vegetation types and biotic assemblages, without explicit planning for those outcomes.

Biodiversity 'hotspot' areas, which are characterized by concentrations of endemic species and severe anthropogenic loss of natural habitat, might be thought * Corresponding author. The property survey was carried out by IESB under a grant from PROBlO, which supported also the interpretation of the land cover data by E.C. Landau and colleagues. The World Bank's Research Support Board supported the data analysis reported here, compilation of the vegetation maps by W. Wayt Thomas and André M.de Carvalho, and (with supplementary funding from the Rain Forest Trust) supported digitization of the land capabilities data. We are grateful to IBGE for making those data available and to David Stoms at