Conversion of native forest land to crops or grazing uses typically follows classic “slash-and-burn” methods, with trees burned to make way for agriculture. While some resulting agriculture may be intensive, most is low-yielding and extensive. Lack of access to modern agricultural practices and inputs for better pasture management, soil conservation, and agriculture and animal health can slowly deplete soil resources reducing land productivity over time and requiring new land to be cleared for production.

The IDB promotes agricultural policies and programs that intensify agricultural production as means to reduce the expansion of the agricultural frontier into forest areas. Instruments such as support payments for technologies adoption and value chain formation, especially for smallholders, are being promoted in the region to recover degraded land and intensify agricultural production.