This chapter presents and discusses the unique panel data set, DESMAT, that provides the empirical base for this book. The data set is constructed and maintained, under the oversight of Eustáquio Reis, at the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada – IPEA) in Rio de Janeiro. The original motivation for the creation of this database was to develop econometric models for forecasting and policy analysis of Amazon deforestation and its environmental consequences – in particular the contribution to CO2 emissions. However, the scope of analytical possibilities is much broader. Data on several hundred economic, demographic, agricultural and ecological variables have been collected for the years 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1991, and 1996 for 257 consistently defined geographic areas in Legal Amazonia.

The significance of the time and effort that has been put into developing and maintaining this huge database cannot be emphasized enough. The data set is an enormous contribution to our knowledge about, and ability to analyze, change and growth in the Amazon. It was the existence of the data set which originally inspired the ongoing research collaboration which has resulted in this book.