Anderson Antonio Silva Anderson Antonio Silva, Acácio Zuniga Leite, Luís Felipe Perdigão de Castro, S. Sauer
This article discusses grilagem (land grabbing) in the Cerrado, particularly in Matopiba territory, which is seen as the newest and largest global agricultural frontier. It examines how the Rural Environmental Cadastre (CAR), created in 2012, has become an instrument for land and green grabbing. The analysis draws on empirical evidence on overlapping land cadastres and conflict in Piauí. The CAR has favoured green grabbing due to weak land governance, allowing the appropriation of land and nature through claims of environmental protection. The article highlights resource appropriations on the frontier that reflect the ‘unequal ecological exchange’, and the ‘metabolic rift’, that characterises the global capitalist system. It contributes to a highly topical debate on green grabbing, in the context of climate change and environmental sustainability. Crucially, it offers a perspective of the global South, on how the green agenda is being used through legal tools as a mechanism of resource appropriation.
{"title":"Green Grabbing in the Matopiba Agricultural Frontier","authors":"Anderson Antonio Silva Anderson Antonio Silva, Acácio Zuniga Leite, Luís Felipe Perdigão de Castro, S. Sauer","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.105","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses grilagem (land grabbing) in the Cerrado, particularly in Matopiba territory, which is seen as the newest and largest global agricultural frontier. It examines how the Rural Environmental Cadastre (CAR), created in 2012, has become an instrument for land and green grabbing. The analysis draws on empirical evidence on overlapping land cadastres and conflict in Piauí. The CAR has favoured green grabbing due to weak land governance, allowing the appropriation of land and nature through claims of environmental protection. The article highlights resource appropriations on the frontier that reflect the ‘unequal ecological exchange’, and the ‘metabolic rift’, that characterises the global capitalist system. It contributes to a highly topical debate on green grabbing, in the context of climate change and environmental sustainability. Crucially, it offers a perspective of the global South, on how the green agenda is being used through legal tools as a mechanism of resource appropriation.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79013473","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Andréa Leme da Silva, L. Eloy, Karla Rosane Aguiar Oliveira, Osmar de Araújo Coelho Filho, Marcos Rogério Beltrão dos Santos
The spread of soy monoculture in the Brazilian Cerrado relies on land and water grabbing, although water appropriation is a least studied issue in the current literature. A mixed-methods approach was used to study changes in water use in western Bahia and the evolution of water and environmental standards over the last 20 years. The results show that the deregulation of environmental laws by the Bahia state Institute for the Environment and Water Resources (Instituto do Meio Ambiente e Recursos Hidricos, INEMA) has facilitated deforestation and water grabbing for large-scale irrigation by industrial agriculture. The social dynamics of struggles and resistance to this process was also analysed. The results show that water appropriation in the neoliberal agricultural frontiers of the Cerrado has changed not only water use and flows but also water governance systems, flows of power, and the representations that underpin them.
{"title":"Environmental Policy Reform and Water Grabbing in an Agricultural Frontier in the Brazilian Cerrado","authors":"Andréa Leme da Silva, L. Eloy, Karla Rosane Aguiar Oliveira, Osmar de Araújo Coelho Filho, Marcos Rogério Beltrão dos Santos","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.107","url":null,"abstract":"The spread of soy monoculture in the Brazilian Cerrado relies on land and water grabbing, although water appropriation is a least studied issue in the current literature. A mixed-methods approach was used to study changes in water use in western Bahia and the evolution of water and environmental standards over the last 20 years. The results show that the deregulation of environmental laws by the Bahia state Institute for the Environment and Water Resources (Instituto do Meio Ambiente e Recursos Hidricos, INEMA) has facilitated deforestation and water grabbing for large-scale irrigation by industrial agriculture. The social dynamics of struggles and resistance to this process was also analysed. The results show that water appropriation in the neoliberal agricultural frontiers of the Cerrado has changed not only water use and flows but also water governance systems, flows of power, and the representations that underpin them.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82079832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dernival Venâncio Ramos Júnior, Vinicius Gomes de Aguiar, Komali Kantamaneni
This article examines fire as a political tool to advance the expansion of the agricultural frontier in Brazil and proposes a methodology for working with affected communities to protect their territories. Historically, fire has been used by communities as a traditional resource management strategy. However, it has also been associated with environmental degradation and agribusiness expansion. Our analysis focuses on the territories of black rural communities in Matopiba and shows how territorial conflict is now shifting to the productive spaces of these communities, indicating a politicisation of these spaces and implications for the regional agri-food system. Using satellite imagery and participatory methods, the authors worked with community members and activists to create an integrated map documenting and assessing the extent of fires in the area. The methodology developed can support the protection of areas and communities in other parts of this region and help gather evidence that can be used in court cases and support whistleblowing to the authorities.
{"title":"Mapping Fire: The Case of Matopiba","authors":"Dernival Venâncio Ramos Júnior, Vinicius Gomes de Aguiar, Komali Kantamaneni","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.108","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines fire as a political tool to advance the expansion of the agricultural frontier in Brazil and proposes a methodology for working with affected communities to protect their territories. Historically, fire has been used by communities as a traditional resource management strategy. However, it has also been associated with environmental degradation and agribusiness expansion. Our analysis focuses on the territories of black rural communities in Matopiba and shows how territorial conflict is now shifting to the productive spaces of these communities, indicating a politicisation of these spaces and implications for the regional agri-food system. Using satellite imagery and participatory methods, the authors worked with community members and activists to create an integrated map documenting and assessing the extent of fires in the area. The methodology developed can support the protection of areas and communities in other parts of this region and help gather evidence that can be used in court cases and support whistleblowing to the authorities.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84114518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As global agri-food systems come under increasing stress, debates on their future have become highly polarised, exposing fundamental differences in understandings and priorities: industrial production versus traditional rights; short-term yields versus longer-term sustainability; cheap versus healthy food. Brazil is at the core of these debates, with the Cerrado being centre stage since the soybean-powered Green Revolution. Accompanied by deforestation, soil degradation, and depletion of water resources, Brazil’s agricultural production frontier has now moved northwards into the Matopiba region. This issue of the IDS Bulletin explores the ongoing territorial transformation, considering the violent logics of extraction in frontier zones, the grabbing of nature, and the dynamics of resistance in local and international spheres. Exposing both the material and discursive appropriation experienced by the Cerrado, this issue profiles it as a key site of multi-scalar injustices against people and nature that need to be addressed by efforts to secure more just and sustainable agri-food systems.
{"title":"Introduction: Reclaiming the Cerrado – A Territorial Account of a Disputed Frontier","authors":"L. Cabral, S. Sauer, A. Shankland","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.102","url":null,"abstract":"As global agri-food systems come under increasing stress, debates on their future have become highly polarised, exposing fundamental differences in understandings and priorities: industrial production versus traditional rights; short-term yields versus longer-term sustainability; cheap versus healthy food. Brazil is at the core of these debates, with the Cerrado being centre stage since the soybean-powered Green Revolution. Accompanied by deforestation, soil degradation, and depletion of water resources, Brazil’s agricultural production frontier has now moved northwards into the Matopiba region. This issue of the IDS Bulletin explores the ongoing territorial transformation, considering the violent logics of extraction in frontier zones, the grabbing of nature, and the dynamics of resistance in local and international spheres. Exposing both the material and discursive appropriation experienced by the Cerrado, this issue profiles it as a key site of multi-scalar injustices against people and nature that need to be addressed by efforts to secure more just and sustainable agri-food systems.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":"26 12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80759642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Matheus Sehn Korting, Débora Assumpção e Lima, José Sobreiro Filho
This article sheds light on the forms of land appropriation in the agricultural frontier regions of Brazil in line with the concepts of land and green grabbing. With less stringent environmental laws, the Cerrado presents itself as a ‘sacrifice zone’, where grabbers and large agricultural producers have sought to register lands of the Amazon biome as ‘Cerrado’ or an undefined biome zone land. It seeks to understand what happens in territories when power technologies, that is, disciplinary mechanisms such as the Rural Environmental Cadastre (CAR), are activated and how the state has regulated land appropriation and green grabbing as a new meaning of appropriation of nature. This has created obstacles for the struggle and resistance of socio-territorial movements for land distribution, as confirmed by the growing lethality of conflicts in Brazilian frontier zones that are coveted by the grabbers.
{"title":"Brazilian Agricultural Frontier: Land Grabbing, Land Policy, and Conflicts","authors":"Matheus Sehn Korting, Débora Assumpção e Lima, José Sobreiro Filho","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.106","url":null,"abstract":"This article sheds light on the forms of land appropriation in the agricultural frontier regions of Brazil in line with the concepts of land and green grabbing. With less stringent environmental laws, the Cerrado presents itself as a ‘sacrifice zone’, where grabbers and large agricultural producers have sought to register lands of the Amazon biome as ‘Cerrado’ or an undefined biome zone land. It seeks to understand what happens in territories when power technologies, that is, disciplinary mechanisms such as the Rural Environmental Cadastre (CAR), are activated and how the state has regulated land appropriation and green grabbing as a new meaning of appropriation of nature. This has created obstacles for the struggle and resistance of socio-territorial movements for land distribution, as confirmed by the growing lethality of conflicts in Brazilian frontier zones that are coveted by the grabbers.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73826110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This is the glossary for IDS Bulletin 54.1: Frontier Territories: Countering the Green Revolution Legacy in the Brazilian Cerrado.
这是IDS公告54.1:前沿领土:抵制巴西塞拉多的绿色革命遗产的术语表。
{"title":"Glossary","authors":"Lídia Cabral, Sérgio Sauer, Alex Shankland","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.110","url":null,"abstract":"This is the glossary for IDS Bulletin 54.1: Frontier Territories: Countering the Green Revolution Legacy in the Brazilian Cerrado.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135733178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Matopiba’s agricultural frontier has been at the centre of political and scientific debates since its establishment in 2015. However, the impact of agribusiness expansion and intensification on land distribution in the region has yet to be studied. How has the establishment of Matopiba affected commodity crop production and agrarian reform in the region? This article analyses historical trends in soybean and corn production, and recent developments across Matopiba microregions. These are then juxtaposed with data on agrarian reform at microregion level. The findings help to clarify the ways in which agricultural frontier expansion has been reliant on government support and reveal conflicting agricultural development at work in Matopiba. While commodity crop production has increased in Matopiba as expected, agrarian reform has halted. The few agrarian reform settlements that have been created are in areas with lower agricultural potential within the limits of Matopiba’s frontier.
{"title":"Matopiba’s Disputed Agricultural Frontier: Between Commodity Crops and Agrarian Reform","authors":"Estevan Coca, Gabriel Soyer, Barbosa Jr Ricardo","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.104","url":null,"abstract":"Matopiba’s agricultural frontier has been at the centre of political and scientific debates since its establishment in 2015. However, the impact of agribusiness expansion and intensification on land distribution in the region has yet to be studied. How has the establishment of Matopiba affected commodity crop production and agrarian reform in the region? This article analyses historical trends in soybean and corn production, and recent developments across Matopiba microregions. These are then juxtaposed with data on agrarian reform at microregion level. The findings help to clarify the ways in which agricultural frontier expansion has been reliant on government support and reveal conflicting agricultural development at work in Matopiba. While commodity crop production has increased in Matopiba as expected, agrarian reform has halted. The few agrarian reform settlements that have been created are in areas with lower agricultural potential within the limits of Matopiba’s frontier.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90936153","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Having transformed its hinterland to become a major exporter of agricultural commodities, Brazil has, since the mid-2000s, set up a range of South–South cooperation (SSC) initiatives to export its agri-food policies and technologies to othe countries, mainly in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. Both the domestic agricultural policies and SSC have been scrutinised and shaped by interactions with civil society actors, from peasant associations and trade unions to rights-based non-governmental organisations. This article explores modes of interaction and interdependence between different civil society and state actors in the context of SSC relating to food security and agricultural development. It analyses changes and continuities in civil society engagement, and mobilisation and de-mobilisation dynamics. Recently, the government’s de-prioritisation of the South–South agenda has been accompanied by very limited civil society activism. The article discusses why this needs attention and the challenges that need to be considered to reinstate productive state–civil society dynamics.
{"title":"Brazilian Civil Society and South–South Cooperation: Countering the Green Revolution from Abroad","authors":"Laura Trajber Waisbich, L. Cabral","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.109","url":null,"abstract":"Having transformed its hinterland to become a major exporter of agricultural commodities, Brazil has, since the mid-2000s, set up a range of South–South cooperation (SSC) initiatives to export its agri-food policies and technologies to othe countries, mainly in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. Both the domestic agricultural policies and SSC have been scrutinised and shaped by interactions with civil society actors, from peasant associations and trade unions to rights-based non-governmental organisations. This article explores modes of interaction and interdependence between different civil society and state actors in the context of SSC relating to food security and agricultural development. It analyses changes and continuities in civil society engagement, and mobilisation and de-mobilisation dynamics. Recently, the government’s de-prioritisation of the South–South agenda has been accompanied by very limited civil society activism. The article discusses why this needs attention and the challenges that need to be considered to reinstate productive state–civil society dynamics.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87109017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
À medida que os sistemas agroalimentares globais estão sob crescente tensão, os debates sobre o seu futuro tornaram-se altamente polarizados, expondo diferenças fundamentais nos entendimentos e prioridades: produção industrial versus direitos tradicionais; rendimentos a curto prazo versus sustentabilidade a longo prazo; alimentos baratos versus alimentos saudáveis. O Brasil está no centro desses debates, sendo o Cerrado o centro das atenções desde a Revolução Verde, impulsionada pelos cultivos de soja. Acompanhada pelo desmatamento, degradação do solo e esgotamento dos recursos hídricos, a fronteira de produção agrícola do Brasil mudou-se agora para o norte, na região do Matopiba. Esta edição do IDS Bulletin explora a transformação territorial em curso, considerando as lógicas violentas da extração nas zonas fronteiriças, a apropriação da natureza e a dinâmica da resistência nas esferas local e internacional. Esta edição, ao expor tanto a apropriação material como discursiva vivida pelo Cerrado, caracteriza-o como um local-chave de injustiças multi escalares contra as pessoas e a natureza, que precisam ser tratadas por meio de esforços para garantir sistemas agroalimentares mais justos e sustentáveis.
{"title":"Introdução: Lutando pelo Cerrado – um olhar territorial sobre uma fronteira disputada","authors":"L. Cabral, Sérgio Sérgio, Alex Shankland","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.111","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.111","url":null,"abstract":"À medida que os sistemas agroalimentares globais estão sob crescente tensão, os debates sobre o seu futuro tornaram-se altamente polarizados, expondo diferenças fundamentais nos entendimentos e prioridades: produção industrial versus direitos tradicionais; rendimentos a curto prazo versus sustentabilidade a longo prazo; alimentos baratos versus alimentos saudáveis. O Brasil está no centro desses debates, sendo o Cerrado o centro das atenções desde a Revolução Verde, impulsionada pelos cultivos de soja. Acompanhada pelo desmatamento, degradação do solo e esgotamento dos recursos hídricos, a fronteira de produção agrícola do Brasil mudou-se agora para o norte, na região do Matopiba. Esta edição do IDS Bulletin explora a transformação territorial em curso, considerando as lógicas violentas da extração nas zonas fronteiriças, a apropriação da natureza e a dinâmica da resistência nas esferas local e internacional. Esta edição, ao expor tanto a apropriação material como discursiva vivida pelo Cerrado, caracteriza-o como um local-chave de injustiças multi escalares contra as pessoas e a natureza, que precisam ser tratadas por meio de esforços para garantir sistemas agroalimentares mais justos e sustentáveis.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83926064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This is the Notes on Contributors for IDS Bulletin 54.1: Frontier Territories: Countering the Green Revolution Legacy in the Brazilian Cerrado.
这是IDS公告54.1:前沿地区:应对巴西塞拉多的绿色革命遗产的贡献者说明。
{"title":"Notes on Contributors","authors":"Lídia Cabral, Sérgio Sauer, Alex Shankland","doi":"10.19088/1968-2023.101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2023.101","url":null,"abstract":"This is the Notes on Contributors for IDS Bulletin 54.1: Frontier Territories: Countering the Green Revolution Legacy in the Brazilian Cerrado.","PeriodicalId":47532,"journal":{"name":"Ids Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies","volume":"123 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135733177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}