The role of socio-territorial movements in environmental conflicts in Brazil

Abstract

Brazil has experienced, particularly since the 2000s, a systematic advance of neo-extractivism over peasant territories and those of traditional peoples and communities. This process is based on capital's strategies to restructure itself, seeking appropriate and subordinate spaces that can be dominated and plundered. From this perspective, generally supported by the formation of political power, offensive actions are taken to deepen neo-extractivism and the territorialization of agrarian capitalism, with profound repercussions on agrarian and ecological issues. As a consequence of this structural problem, there has been an increase in environmental conflicts, resulting in different strategies of resistance on the part of socio-territorial movements. This raises the question of how these socio-territorial movements have resisted environmental conflicts in the country. To understand these dynamics, we used the DATALUTA Network database, which records the collective actions of agrarian socio-territorial movements, carried out between 2020 and 2023, based on the collection of reports and news published in the country's newspapers. The analysis of the data collected showed that various actions were undertaken by the movements against the worsening of environmental conflicts. In this context, there was a continuation of land disputes, which intensified political struggles and highlighted the different ways in which territory and nature were appropriated.