The results of the study, published in the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, shows how the development of infrastructure, coffee, rice and other crops in the region has been at the expense of evergreen forest. It reveals that since 1973 evergreen forest cover in the region was reduced from 100 to 60 million hectares as a direct consequence of agricultural expansion. Deforestation peaked in 1992 and has slowed in recent years although new areas are still being converted and evidence of degradation and fragmentation can still be seen.

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