Soils of livestock pastures are heavily degraded in the Amazon region compared to conditions immediately after deforestation. We hypothesized that incoming-generating Brazil nut plantations (Bertholletia excelsa) and natural succession secondary forests can recover soil properties of these lands. To test this, we sampled two 200-cm soil pits in four vegetation types: pasture (PA), Brazil-nut plantation (BN), secondary forest (SF) and primary forest (PF). Soil samples were collected at nine fixed depths to measure bulk density, pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN) and C/N-ratio. The SOC concentration, TN and C/N-ratio did not differ significantly among vegetation types in any soil layer, even if the mean SOC concentrations of BN and SF were between those of PA and PF in the 0-5 cm layer. Bulk densities of PA (1.47 g cm-3) and PF (1.11 g cm-3) differed significantly in 0-5 cm, while those of BN (1.31 g cm-3) and SF (1.34 g cm-3) were in between and not significantly different from PA nor PF. pH differed significantly among vegetation types in the 0-5 cm layer, except BN and SF. The highest pH was found in PA (4.7), probably due alkaline ashes from initial slash-and-burn, and the lowest in PF (3.5). pH was generally higher in PA down to at least 30 cm. The results suggest that SOC and TN were robust to land use changes, while bulk density and pH were more sensitive. BN and SF showed potentials for recovery of soil properties as bulk density and pH.