Although Brazil recently repealed some of its development incentives, in 1990 the government was still subsidizing existing Amazon ranchers at a cost to its taxpayers of some $2.5 billion a year. Unsurprisingly, ranchers are prominent in Brazilian political circles, as are timber industrialists in Thailand, Sarawak, Sabah, and the Philippines, where hardwood stands are being cut down at a breackneck pace. [TF]