Fish-bone deforestation

Development and population pressures that contribute to land use change and deforestation often occur in association with roads and highways. This pattern is known as fish-bone deforestation or feather deforestation.

The "fish-bone" or "feather" deforestation pattern is typical throughout the Amazon. An access road is carved into the jungle and vegetation along the roadside systematically slashed to permit tilling of the soil. As the soil is insufficiently fertile to support intensive agriculture for any length of time, paths are carved perpendicular to the original access road to provide access to more land and the pattern repeated until the fish-bone pattern emerges.