Abstract
Appropriation of public lands associated with agricultural frontier expansion is a longstanding occurrence in the Amazon that has resulted in a highly skewed land-tenure structure in spite of recent state efforts to recognize tenure rights of indigenous people and smallholders living in or nearby forests. Growing concerns to reduce environmental impacts from agricultural development have motivated state governments to place greater attention on sustainable land management and forest conservation. This paper assesses the political and institutional conditions shaping tenure security and land appropriation in lowland Bolivia and the State of Pará in Brazil, and their links with environmental governance. The two cases show that clarifying and securing tenure rights is considered as the cornerstone for improving environmental governance. Thus, much attention has been given to the recognition of indigenous people and smallholder rights and to legalization of large-scale estates in agricultural frontiers, which have in turn influenced emerging conservation and environmental governance approaches. While policy frameworks share similar goals in the two cases, contrasting implementation approaches have been adopted: more agrarian in lowland Bolivia and more conservationist in the State of Pará.
Highlights
Land appropriation, either by large- or small-scale landholders associated with agricultural frontier expansion, is a longstanding occurrence in the Amazon [1,2]
We argue that land acquisition is a longstanding process in the Amazon whose benefits are skewed towards medium- and large-scale landholders even in the presence of tenure securitization policies recognizing indigenous people and smallholder tenure rights
This paper argues that important processes of land appropriation have taken place in the Amazon, which posits an important challenge for land tenure regularization amid objectives of social justice and environmental conservation
Summary
Either by large- or small-scale landholders associated with agricultural frontier expansion, is a longstanding occurrence in the Amazon [1,2]. This perspective argues that property rights are embedded in social relationships shaped by asymmetric power, efforts to secure tenure may favor those social groups with a relative bargaining advantage and likely threaten more vulnerable groups [39] In this view, formalization of tenure rights, in contexts of uneven power relationships and market asymmetries, would lead to increased conflict, which is associated with frontier occupation where more powerful groups, with greater political influence, might take advantage of the process [40]. Significant efforts for clarifying and securing tenure rights have been undertaken in many developing countries where important processes of land appropriation occur in frontier situations This is the case of lowland Bolivia and the State of Pará, Brazil. The main aim is to understand which policy approach has greater potential to deliver tenure security benefits in the context of improved environmental governance
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