The Political Economy of Land Conflict in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

An important goal of regional development in the Brazilian Amazon was to enhance social welfare and alleviate dire poverty in other parts of the country by providing land to the poor. Nevertheless, both poverty and landlessness have persisted despite development policies that distributed billions of dollars on highway construction, loans, and outright subsidies. Inequitable land distribution has been held as a prime factor in land conflict across the country. Although episodes of conflict over land are common in Brazilian history, this paper focuses on agrarian issues that arose with the opening of the Amazon frontier in the 1970s. The paper presents a political economy approach that considers the role of hierarchical forces interacting across spatial scales, in creating conditions ripe for land conflict at the local level. The premise is that the Brazilian government, intending to bring about economic and social development, promoted contradictory strategies creating land scarcity. These strategies led to expansion of large ranching operations, creation of conservation units, and demarcation of indigenous reserves, which constrained the pool of land available for small farmer settlement. Empirical analysis employing regression and spatial statistics is used to test the proposed model, advancing previous efforts by applying spatial regression, incorporating improved indicators of conflict and explanatory variables generated by a Geographic Information System (GIS). The findings provide support for some elements of the argument, demonstrating statistically significant relationships between land conflict and land concentration, cattle ranching, and road construction. Finally, a case study analysis of a county in the heart of the land conflict zone is provided, illustrating the interaction of scalar forces, and the articulation of land conflict at the local level.

Land occupations and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

“…These are also confirmed via secondary sources before an official registry is made in their database. Simmons (2004), however, examined previous studies from southern Pará and discovered large discrepancies in reports of land conflict-related murders (Almeida 1994;Barata 1995). The data seem to follow similar trends, but she suggests that CPT may under-report murders, largely because CPT field agents are unable to accompany land conflict over such large areas.…”

Urban land conflict in the Global South: Towards an analytical framework

“…It acknowledges that scarcity may be socially produced, but also that it is related to economic, political and social factors (e.g. Simmons, 2004). For example, Peluso and Lund's (2011) exploration of 'new frontiers of land control' seeks to identify emerging regimes, environments and actors that contribute to the ability to control access and claims to or exclusion from land.…”

Smallholders, Agrarian Reform, and Globalization in the Brazilian Amazon: Cattle versus the Environment

“…The government has responded with new policy initiatives, especially in the aftermath of the Eldorado do Carajás massacre in 1996 when 19 landless farmers were killed by the military police during a protest [3]. Rather than return to the large-scale, state-led colonization programs of the 1970s, the government shifted focus with the creation of a Novo Mundo Rural, or new rural world, based on the promotion and support of small farmers in SPs.…”

“…Disability retirement, also equivalent to one minimum wage, is a benefit granted to employees incapable of working due to illness or accident, in accordance with a certification by a medical group approved by the office of Social Security. 1 Off-farm jobs refer to formal employment off the property, meaning that a family member has a steady job elsewhere; 2 Off-farm day labor refers to wages earned by family members for working other properties; 3 Respondents reported more than one income source.…”

“…On the one hand, the highway network opened the frontier to waves of immigration with population increases from four million in 1960 to more than 24 million by 2010 [1], and reduced transportation costs making the region attractive to agroindustry [2]. Indeed, Brazil's economy has mostly thrived since the turn of the millennium, with agroindustry in Amazonia an important part of this success story, particularly the expansion of cattle ranching throughout the basin [3]. On the other hand, the elaborate colonization programs intended to rectify Brazil's "rural problem" and ameliorate growing populist discontent were unable to completely satisfy the societal demand for land, and led to conflicts and rapid rates of deforestation [3].…”