This paper assesses the prospects of mitigating climate change through emission reductions from forestry and agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon. It uses official statistics, literature and case study material to identify the scope for emission reductions, in terms of potential additionality, opportunity costs, technological complexity, transaction costs, and risks of economic and environmental spill-over effects. The findings indicate a comparative advantage in the Brazilian Amazon of forest conservation based over land use modifying mitigation options, especially in terms of higher potential additionality in emission reductions. The review points to a series of regional development deficits that may come to hamper attempts to tap into the large-scale climate change mitigation potential often associated with the Amazon.