Land Reform Settlements in the Brazilian Land Reform Settlements in the Brazilian Amazon: New drivers of LCLUCAmazon: New drivers of LCLUC

Manaus,November 2008Manaus,November 2008

Marcellus Caldas, Kansas State UniversityRobert Walker, Michigan State UniversityCindy Simmons, Michigan State UniversitySteve Aldrich, Michigan State University Steve Perz, University of FloridaEugenio Arima, Hobart and William Smith College

Presented at International Scientific ConferenceAmazon in Perspective

Integrated Science for a Sustainable Future

Brazil: the highest rates of deforestation in the world

Many factors have been identified as drivers of LCC

Mining, logging, colonization, migration, infrastructure expansion, etc.

Much remains to be learned about the social and institutional conditions underlying this massive process of environmental degradation

More than three decades of LCLUC in the Brazilian Amazon

To comprehend LCLUC by looking at the underlying social and institutional circumstances that leads to:

“ settlements formation, or assentamentos, in what has been referred to as DALR”

The goals of this paper

We will address a particular type of DALR, which is found on terra devoluta:

“untitled, unoccupied government land not earmarked for public use (Article 3 – Law 601 of 1850)”

Between 1960 and 2007:- Brazil: 7,694 settlements (INCRA 2007)

- Between 1995-2002: 1,609 assentamentos in the Amazon region

- 185,000 families were involved- an area of about 140,000 km2

The importance of DALR in the Amazon

However, the assentamento formation process is not well understood, given its relative newness:

- some assentamentos date from the middle 1990s and are still in phases of active development.

(1) to undertake a case study of newly formed assentamentos, and;

(2) to conduct a remote sensing analysis of deforestation occurring in the assentamentos and others like it, found in the study area.

Two specific objectives:Two specific objectives:

The Land Cover Change LiteratureThe Land Cover Change Literature

The Contentious Politics LiteratureThe Contentious Politics Literature

Theoretical Theoretical ApproachApproach

It is possible to affirm, there is a lack in the literature about the formation of land reform settlements and its impact on LCC.

Land Cover Change Literature

The Contentious Politics Literature

What is Contentious Politics?

“ C.P. differ from politics “as usual” by virtue of their innovative, often conflictive, tactics deployed in episodic efforts to redress a social wrong” (McAdam et al.,2001; Sewell, 2001; among others)

“ “ is a type of is a type of contentious politics contentious politics ””

1) because, it seeks 1) because, it seeks to redress mal-to redress mal-distribution of land distribution of land in Brazilin Brazil

2) because, its 2) because, its premier tactic, land premier tactic, land occupationoccupation, falls , falls outside outside conventional conventional societal grievance societal grievance channels. channels.

DALR DALR

The Conceptual Framework

Combines C.P. theory within the LCLUC discourse

specifically within the underlying/proximate causation (UPC) framework

The conceptual Framework

MicroMicroMacroMacroUnderlying CausesUnderlying Causes

. Political & Institutional

. Population Growth

.Technological Change

. Land Concentration

. Poverty , Migration

. Rural Poverty

. Household Demography

. Information Network

Affect Population and leads to Social Marginalization

DARL. Strong SMO motivation

DALR. Spontaneous Motivation

Collective Mobilization Individuals

ContentiousLand

Invasion

LandOccupation

Mobilization

Contentious

NEW SETTLEMENTSMO Oriented

. Accessible sites. Within the frontier

. High land value. Private land

NEW SETTLEMENTSpontaneous

. Unaccessibles sites. Endogenous process

. Beyond frontier. Low land value. Terra devoluta

Proximate CausesProximate Causes. Road extension

. Agricultural expansion. Logging

. Shifting cultivation. Cattle raising

3 Hypotheses

Hypothesis 1:Hypothesis 1:

“ Spontaneous DALR seeks out unclaimed lands beyond the frontier, given the low land value of primary forest, thereby minimizing the risk of individuals who occupy land without

organizational support or assistance from the state ”

Hypothesis 2:Hypothesis 2:

“ Spontaneous DALR is a consequence of early land reform policies that stimulated in-migration to the region. Specifically, early migrants have created a local population pursuing DALR via a “demographic” life cycle, whereby the second generation of the

original settlers now seeks its own land ”

Hypothesis 3:

“ Argues that land cover change and forest fragmentation increase after DALR settlement officialization by the federal government due to federal resources for

infrastructure creation”

Study Sites

Extensive undertook key informants interviews from the community leaders, rural syndicates, and government agencies (2004,2006)

Settlements: 13

Region 1 (Transamazon): 174 questionnaires

Region 2 (South of Pará): 219 questionnaires

Land Cover Change

Land Title

Transamazon South of Pará Frequency % Frequency %

No document 52 30.06 172 78.53 Some type of

document 121 69.94 47 21.47

Total 173 100 219 100 Note 1: type of document could include any of the following: contract of sale; protocol,

or INCRA declaration Note 2: One respondent did not answer this question for the Transamazon region

Land Title by Region

Land security is very important for posseiros in the Transamazon region => posseiros in public land are subject to possible eviction

Region

Area (Hectares)

Annual crop

Perennial Crop1

Pasture

Transamazon

N = 174

4.05 (4.75)

2.24 (2.60)

31.18 (47.63)

South of Pará

N = 219

2.35 (2.80)

0.25 (1.10)

24.42 (25.23)

Land use by region

Note 1: The perennial crops include coffee and cocoa and the annual crops include rice, corn, beans and manioc. Note 2: The values between parentheses are standard deviations Note 3: The average lot size in the South of Pará is 36.50 hectares, while in the Transamazon region the average is 89 hectares.

Settlements Farm Terra devoluta

Frequency % Frequency %

Transamazon 12 6.89 104 59.77

South of Pará 184 84.02 8 3.65

Land type before settlement formation

Note: Fifty eight settlers did not answer this question for the Transamazon region and twenty seven respondents did not answer this question for the South of Pará

Different contentions in different regions

Settlements Yes No Total

Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %

Transamazon 11 6.32 163 93.68 174 100

South of Pará 137 62.56 81 36.99 218 99.44

Settler involvement in DALR activity by region

DALR: strikes, encampments, manifestations, frente de massa, and private land occupation

Note: One respondent did not answer this question for the South of Pará

The regression analysis

Independent Variables

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Coeff. P > z Coeff. P > z Coeff. P > z Coeff. P > z

P_knowledge 1.805 (1.07)

0.11 2.523 (2.59)

0.01 1.419 (1.21)

0.22 1.091 (0.86)

0.39

Distance -0.026 (-1.74)

0.08 -0.028 (-2.10)

0.04 -0.023 (-1.55)

0.12 -0.022 (-1.43)

0.15

L_residence 0.159 (2.15)

0.03 0.121 (1.88)

0.06 0.185 (2.14)

0.03 0.185 (2.16)

0.03

T_devoluta 6.173 (4.87)

0.00 6.089 (5.08)

0.00 7.181 (4.21)

0.00 7.381 (4.23)

0.00

DALR_1 -3.740 (-3.30)

0.00 -3.670 (-3.01)

0.00 -3.732 (-2.84)

0.00

DARL_2 -3.336 (-2.28)

0.02 -2.81

(-1.87) 0.06

-2.735 (-1.75)

0.08

L_ownership 0.624 (0.56)

0.58 0.618 (0.49)

0.62 1.860 (1.23)

0.22 2.020 (1.27)

0.21

Urban_rural -1.063 (-1.34)

0.18

Constant -4.043 (-2.04)

0.04 -4.677 (-2.62)

0.01 -5.038 (-2.11)

0.03 -4.564 (-1.82)

0.07

Settlements 1986 1991 1999

Forest (Ha)

Cleared (Ha) Forest (Ha)

Cleared (Ha)

Forest (Ha)

Cleared (Ha)

PA Rio do Peixe 24,421.14 213.75 23,205.33 1,431.63 22,159.08 2,407.77 PA Trairão 15,666.57 22.32 15,457.41 231.48 15,132.60 556.29

PA Tutuí Norte 31,984.70 4.95 31,981.00 8.73 31,935.90 53.64 PA Uirapurú 21,171 501.48 19,311.21 2,360.97 16,307.64 5,337.81 PA Surubim 151,870.59 10,288.80 147,811.95 14,390.37 138,114.9 24,075.72 PA Tutuí Sul 13,388.13 279.27 12,880.53 786.87 11,534.49 2,132.91 PA Alto Pará 44,446.23 80.19 44,195.49 330.93 44,126.10 400.14 PA Placas 25,688.79 105.12 25,377.39 416.52 24,508.80 1,268.82

PA Rio de Pedras 23,919.48 86.94 23,454.27 552.15 23,229.99 763.47

Deforestation by Settlement

In general, all settlements found in the Transamazon region have experienced increases in amount of deforestation => however, there are notable differences in magnitudes among the settlements

Qu ickTim e™ an d a d ecom p r essor

ar e n eed ed t o see t h is p ict u r e.

Landscape Metrics