Eastern Amazonian forests have a longer post-colonial history of commercial timber extraction than the other Amazonian regions (Acre and lowland Bolivia).  For centuries, commercial logging has occurred in areas accessible by water, and since the 1970s roads have provided access to substantial portions of the interior. Currently, both selective and intensive harvesting are ongoing in both upland and flooded forests of the region.  More remote areas are harvested selectively while areas closer to urban markets are harvested more intensively in both environments (Uhl et al. 1993).  Although best practices for achieving STY are at roughly the same stage of development as in Bolivia, much of the existing forest resource is more heavily affected by recent and current harvesting, and by forest conversion. 

Ongoing studies focused on the economics of reduced impact logging (RIL) have demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of adapting improved harvesting practices (Boltz & Carter 2001), but the impact of RIL practices on regeneration of commercial species merits additional attention (Uhl et al. 1991, 1997).  Verissimo et al. (1995) have suggested that regeneration failure of mahogany encourages post-harvest conversion of forest to pasture.

Because of higher population pressure during the past century, Eastern Amazonia contains a relatively larger proportion of secondary forests than the other Amazonian regions.  In this setting, research is needed to explore tradeoffs and complementarities between management for sustained timber yields, NTFPs and other goods and services associated with fallow forestry.  Recent work indicates that under some conditions fallow forestry for wood and NTFPs is an economically attractive land use alternative (Pinedo-Vasquez et al. 2001).