3. Conflicts of interest at the Amazonian pioneer fronts in the 1980s
Year: 2025
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Conflicts of interest at the Amazonian pioneer fronts in the 1980s Land conflictsThe pioneer front areas in Amazônia Legal were characterised by confrontation and clashes between different social actors in a permanent struggle for land access and spatial domination of rain forest areas.The state monopoly of violence was rarely existing in these peripheral regions, or the official institutions were weakened or frequently corruptible.Land use conf licts of varying extent and intensity existed despite state spatial planning, administrative measures and existing legal requirements.Violation of law plays a key role in most conf licts of interest.Unequal balance of power and unequal power of disposition of natural resources lead to indirect "structural violence" (Galtung 1972) or even to direct violent activities between persons or groups involved.Land conf licts finally mean suppression and driving out of the weakest actors.This happened despite the fact that in many cases huge land reserves were available, often considered inexhaustible.One of the basic problems was the untrustworthiness of land titles, sometimes based on dubious or falsified historical documents, on federal, state or municipal allocations or by forging of the land register through bribery.Demands for ownership of large landholders occupying land in frontier areas frequently were entirely unfounded.Many real estate owners acquired land by illegal procedures (grilagem).Since the 1970s, land reclamation of competing social actors increased rapidly and conf licts of interest expanded and intensified in many Amazonian regions.49 The strategy of rapid occupation and valorisation of land by exploiting natural resources and gaining economic profits enabled a steadily escalating rivalry concerning land use.Coexistence of competing social groups and their different economic systems was only possible with restrictions.The official authorities responsible for government-controlled spatial organisation of frontier regions neither were financially nor personally well-equipped to resolve the outstanding problems and bringing peace to all the actors in this tense atmosphere.49 On land conflicts in general in Amazonia cf.Ianni (1979a; 1981); Mahar (1979); Barbira-Scazzochio (1980);
Source: Biblioteca luso-afro-brasileira
Author: Gerd Kohlhepp
Language: English
Subfield: Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4408192911