The changing dynamics of land conflict in the Brazilian Amazon: The rural-urban complex and its environmental implications

The Brazilian Amazon is an area of both serious environmental degradation and social instability. Despite billions of dollars spent on economic development and the rapid pace of urbanization, deforestation is extreme and violent land conflict is intense. Although episodes of conflict over land are c...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Urban ecosystems 2002-03, Vol.6 (1-2), p.99-121
Main Authors: Simmons, Cynthia S, Perz, Stephen, Pedlowski, Marcos A, Silva, Luiz Guilherme Teixeira
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Deforestation
Developing countries
Economic development
Environmental degradation
Environmental impact
LDCs
Rainforests
Rural areas
Urbanization
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Brazilian Amazon is an area of both serious environmental degradation and social instability. Despite billions of dollars spent on economic development and the rapid pace of urbanization, deforestation is extreme and violent land conflict is intense. 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 argues that the nature of land conflict in the eastern Brazilian Amazon is dynamic, and proposes a two-stage model to illustrate how the struggle has evolved from an agrarian phenomenon to an organized resistance that is urban-based. Recognizing the interaction between cities and rural areas in the frontier reaches of the Brazilian Amazon is key to understanding the land struggle in the face of urbanization. The analytical framework deployed considers the transformation of the region from an agrarian frontier to an urbanized frontier, assessing the dynamic nature of the land struggle and examining the implications for land cover change.
ISSN:1083-8155
1573-1642
DOI:10.1023/A:1025918730400