Environmental issues, land appropriation and emergence of new political actors in contemporary Brazil

Abstract

In Brazil, the emergence of environmental issues has a strong link with the emergence of new themes and political actors in rural areas and with contemporary manifestations of agrarian issue. In the article, I seek to provide an overview of the relationships between land appropriation, the struggles of the populations that live that territories and the progressive articulation of these struggles with environmental issues. We begin with a historical contextualization and, subsequently, explore the formation of new political actors and identities around land uses. Next, we address contemporary impasses of land and environmental conflicts in the face of the expansion of agribusiness, financialization and land grabbing.

Keywords: agrarian issue; land market; traditional populations; socio-environmental conflicts.