Land Reform and Biodiversity Conservation in Brazil in the 1990S: Conflict and the Articulation of Mutual Interests
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Land Reform and Biodiversity Conservation in Brazil in the 1990s: Conflict and the Articulation of Mutual Interests LAURY CULLEN JR.,∗ KEITH ALGER,† AND DENISE M. RAMBALDI‡ ∗IPE-ˆ Instituto de Pesquisas Ecol´ogicas, C.P. 31, Teodoro Sampaio, SP, Brasil, CEP 19.280-000, S˜ao Paulo, Brasil, email [email protected] †Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International, 1919 M Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20036, U.S.A. and Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Ilh´eus, Bahia, Brasil ‡Associa¸c˜ao Mico-Le˜ao-Dourado, Rodovia BR 101, Km 214, Caixa Postal 109.968, Casimiro de Abreu 28860-970, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil Abstract: Land-reform and environmental movements, revitalized by the democratization of civil society in Brazil in the 1990s, found their objectives in conflict over forested parcels that settlers want for conversion to agriculture but that are important for wildlife conservation. In the Atlantic Forest, where 95% of the forest is gone, we reviewed three cases of Brazilian nongovernmental organization (NGOs) engagement with the land- reform movement with respect to forest remnants neighboring protected areas that have insufficient habitat for the long-term survival of unique endangered species. In the Pontal do Paranapanema (Sao˜ Paulo), Poc¸o das Antas (Rio de Janeiro), and southern Bahia, environmental NGOs have supported agricultural alternatives that improve livelihood options and provide incentives for habitat conservation planning. Where land-reform groups were better organized, technical cooperation on settlement agriculture permitted the exploration of mutual interests in conciliating the productive landscape with conservation objectives. Processes of regular consultation among NGOs, environmental agencies, and the private sector revealed that there was less zero- sum conflict over the same lands than commonly perceived. In both groups, technicians found forested lands less suitable for small-scale agriculture, and leaders took risks to justify and support claims to alternative existing agricultural lands. Based on the cases we examined, the construction of landscapes with both forest stewardship and poverty-reducing agrarian reform faces continued obstacles from contradictory agrarian and environmental sector policies and inadequate economic incentives for forest stewardship on private lands. Reforma Agraria y Conservaci´on de Biodiversidad en Brasil en los 1990s: Conflictos y la Articulaci´on de Intereses Mutuos Resumen: La reforma agraria y los movimientos ambientales, revitalizados por la democratizacion´ de la sociedad civil brasilena˜ en los 1990s, basan sus objetivos en conflictos sobre parcelas de bosque que los colonos solicitan para conversion´ a la agricultura pero que son importantes para la conservacion´ de vida silvestre. En el Bosque Atlantico,´ donde ha desaparecido 95% del bosque, revisamos tres casos de participacion´ de organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG) en el movimiento de reforma agraria con respecto a remanentes de bosque aledanos˜ a areas´ protegidas que tienen insuficiente habitat´ para la supervivencia a largo plazo de especies unicas´ en peligro. En el Pontal de Paranapanema (Sao˜ Paulo), Poc¸o das Antas (R´ıo de Janeiro) y el sur de Bah´ıa, las ONG ambientales han apoyado alternativas agr´ıcolas que han mejorado las opciones de vida y proporcionado incentivos para la planificacion´ de conservacion´ del habitat.´ En los lugares con mejor organizacion´ de los grupos de reforma agraria, la cooperacion´ t´ecnica en la agricultura permitiol´ aexploracion´ de intereses mutuos en la conciliacion´ del paisaje productivo con los objetivos de conservacion.´ Los procesos regulares de consulta entre las ONG, las agencias ambientales y el sector privado revelaron que hab´ıa menor Paper submitted December 30, 2004; revised manuscript accepted January 20, 2005. 747 Conservation Biology, Pages 747–755 Volume 19, No. 3, June 2005 748 Land Reform and Biodiversity Conservation in Brazil Cullen et al. conflicto suma cero sobre las mismas tierras que el percibido comunmente.´ En ambos grupos, los t´ecnicos encontraron que las tierras boscosas son poco adecuadas para la agricultura de pequena˜ escala, y los l´ıderes corrieron riesgos para justificar y apoyar la demanda de tierras agr´ıcolas alternativas. Con base en los casos que examinamos, la construccion´ de paisajes tanto con bosques administrados como con reformas agrarias para reducir la pobreza enfrenta numerosos obstaculos´ desde pol´ıticas agrarias y ambientales contradictorias hasta incentivos economicos´ inadecuados para la conservacion´ de bosques en terrenos privados. Introduction ple of those originating between 1986 and 1997 began with contestation of land tenure rather than government Many independent agrarian reform organizations and con- initiatives (Heredia et al. 2003). servation nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were The landless movement, however, lacked the political born, revived, and greatly strengthened when the Brazil- “weapons” (social, political, or broadly defined techno- ian military government ended in 1984. These groups logical; Scott 1985; Peluso 1992) to claim the more valu- found a common cause in their opposition to two decades able agricultural land. Brazil’s agrarian reform law, out- of environmentally destructive megaprojects, such as lined in its 1964 Estatuto da Terra (Law 4504, Article 1, government-sponsored colonization of the Amazon and Paragraph 1), also called for “a better distribution of land industrial expansion fired by charcoal from the dwindling ...through appropriation and indemnification of unpro- Atlantic Forest. In both the Amazon and the Atlantic For- ductive properties and their distribution to rural workers” est, the principal cause of rapid deforestation was gov- (italics ours). The INCRA interpreted this to mean that ernment policies, and the principal beneficiaries were properties having more than their legally required 20% owners of large rural estates (Evans 1979; Fearnside 1993; forest reserve were unproductive (Dean 1997). Extensive Dean 1997). In the 1990s, large cattle farms in S˜ao Paulo, uncultivated land on a property was presented before which had been carved out of state forest reserves in the courts as cause for the suspension of a titleholder claim. 1950s, began to be occupied by landless rural workers, Marginal lands with natural vegetation were also less likely led primarily by the Movement of Rural Landless Workers to be violently defended because they tended to have (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra [MST]). soils, topography, and market access poorly suited for This resonated across Brazilian society as social justice, agriculture. Of the land appropriated by INCRA between since it was also cattle ranchers who were responsible 1997 and 1999, only 21.1% was in agricultural use before for the death of Chico Mendes, labor leader of Amazo- occupation (Te´ofilo & Garcia 2003). The land-reform set- nian rubber tappers, and defender of the forest. tlement clusters within the Atlantic Forest states tended Poor land stewardship on the part of farmers became to be in municipalities with more forest remnants than a unifying theme for both the land-reform movement and average (SOS Mata Atlˆantica & INPE 2002). Brazil’s rapidly expanding environmental movement. De- Contradictions between land use for agrarian reform spite their common interests, rampant rural poverty and and for conservation remained largely unnoticed (Viola the lack of government determination to address agrar- 1991). Activists attributed deforestation in the Atlantic ian reform rapidly drove a wedge between the groups. Forest to inadequate enforcement of forestry law, resi- Rural workers increasingly occupied unused lands when dential expansion, and commercial agriculture (Young the government failed to implement land reform as per 2003). Media coverage of rural-land struggles emphasized the provisions of the 1988 Constitution (Te´ofilo & Garcia their social aspects, whereas urban environmentalists had 2003). Judicial decisions after occupation often favored more immediate concern for urban pollution, conges- nominal titleholder rights, but police were frequently un- tion, and nuclear power plants. Nonetheless, the envi- able or unwilling to evict the occupants. Landowner- ronmental aspects of land-reform settlements began to organized vigilante attacks on occupiers commonly fol- be addressed through pilot projects under the National lowed, and the escalation of rural violence motivated ju- Environment Fund (FNMA 2001), promoting agricul- dicial decisions revoking titleholder claims (Medeiros & tural practices that diminished deforestation and fostered Leite 1999; Heredia et al. 2003). Only then did govern- livelihoods. Some environmental groups, however, be- mental land-reform agencies, led by the National Insti- gan questioning whether rural poverty could be solved tute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), begin within the confines of land-reform settlements on the re- intervening. Disputes were resolved outside the judicial maining 5% of forested land in the Atlantic Forest, par- system, with INCRA providing the justification for appro- ticularly because the previous conversion of 95% of the priation, indemnification, and official recognition of land- land to agriculture had not solved the problem. The pro- reform settlements as eligible for government assistance. gressive degradation of lands occupied for agrarian re- Ninety-five percent of land-reform settlements