Using a range of case studies and land-cover change theories as his point of departure, Browder looks deeper for explanations of tropical deforestation in Amazonia. He attempts to integrate scholarship on macro-level, urban-based influences with that of rural producers who are the endogenous agents of forest cover change. Conceptual frameworks he considers include Thunian models and market rationality, growth pole models, innovation diffusion models, regional planning flow models, social capital theory and network exchange theory.

The rural-urban interface (RUI) is the schematic framework that he devises in an attempt to fill the research gap regarding analysis of the effects of urbanization on forest cover. A three-dimensional model is used to convey the inter-relationship of exogenous and endogenous factors that determine the character of a given URI. Social capital networks and productive economic networks are regarded as the spaces in which this interface exists. Exogenous and endogenous factors influencing land use decisions are listed, and examples of farmers negotiating the variables in independent decision-making processes help to ground the model.

Browder stresses that the RUI conceptual framework is simply his contribution towards a better understanding of the rural-urban linkages affecting deforestation, and he acknowledges the need for further formulation and testing of such a model. With an outlook towards the design and application of a methodology capable of producing quantifiable indicators determinant of URI outcomes, he highlights a number of important factors warranting careful consideration: land use history and its present-day ramifications; the inter-related nature of variables and their effects on each other and the final land use outcome; the dynamic rationale and value sets that result from land ownership turnover; the influence of systems of cities, not just a single proximate city; and the growing role of telecommunications.

Prepared by Megan Glore