Land grabbing and corporate use of territory: verticalities and horizontalities in Matopiba (Cerrado biome, Brazil)

Author(s)

Bruno Rezende Spadotto

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2022-12-20

Examining board members

Fabio Betioli Contel; Denise de Souza Elias; Samuel Frederico; Marta Inez Medeiros Marques

• Advisor: Fabio Betioli Contel

Abstract

The general objective of this work was to understand the influence of the global land grabbing process on Brazilian territory uses, more specifically in the regions of Southwest of Piauí and South of Maranhão, located in the Matopiba macro-region. The global land grabbing can be defined by the rush of private and public investment funds for land and resources in the 2000s and 2010s, a period of great volatility and speculation on agricultural commodity prices. The phenomenon is contemporary to the process of financialization of agribusiness and the attempt to convert agricultural land into a financial asset. Three long-term field works were carried out in the specific regions of the study, interviews fulfilled by pre-designed questionnaires, with peasants, representatives of agribusiness companies, public institutions, prosecutors, lawyers, agrarian court judges, and civil society organizations. Data were also collected from specialized journals, reports, and websites of private and public entities. The research analyzed the verticalities arising from the actions of agri-financial real state companies, such as Radar Propriedades Agrícolas S/A (Cosan/TIAA), and the horizontalities arising from the reactions from below of the regional peasant class (\"ribeirinhos\" and \"brejeiros\" people from Southwest of Piauí and South of Maranhão), characterized between adaptations, acquiescence, demands for better terms of incorporation, and popular resistance supported by conceptions of agrarian and global climate justice. The appropriation and financialization of land have meant the expansion of \"grilagem\" and land foreignization, implying damage to the Cerrado ecosystem and its traditional populations, such as the loss of regional food sovereignty, climate change, weakening of the soil, and pollution of rivers by pesticides. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 16/24186-4 - Land grabbing and territory usage: financial capital and land appropriation in south of Maranhão and Piauí (MATOPIBA), north center of Brazil
• Grantee: Bruno Rezende Spadotto
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate