No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Accessing Scarce Resources in the Brazilian Amazon: Voluntary Associations and Secure Land Title
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2022
Abstract
Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
This article builds on the literature on property rights and associational life in Latin America during and after transitions to democracy by assessing participation in voluntary associations as a determinant of land title. It uses survey data collected from rural properties near Santarém, Pará, to describe who participates in voluntary associations and, more important, whether participation in specific groups is aligned with possessing secure title, an important scarce resource in the Brazilian Amazon. This quantitative analysis shows that owners who participate in one union with state-controlled, corporatist roots are more likely to possess secure title to their land than those who do not participate. This systematic variation is important in an era of soy expansion, with a shift from small-scale subsistence farming to large-scale mechanized agricultural and a subsequent increase in land value.
Resumo
Este artigo se baseia na literature acadêmica sobre os direitos de propriedade e o associativismo na América Latina durante e após as transições democráticas. O artigo avalia a participação em associações voluntárias como uma determinante de posse de títulos de terra. Utilizando dados de survey sobre propriedades rurais nos arredores de Santarém, Pará, descreve quem participa em associações voluntárias e, principalmente, visando determinar se a participação em grupos específicos é relacionada com a posse de títulos de terra, um recurso importante e escasso na Amazônia brasileira. Essa análise quantitativa mostra que proprietários que participam de sindicatos com origens corporativistas e controladas pelo estado têm maior probabilidade de possuir os títulos de suas terras do que os proprietários que não participam. Essa variação sistemática é relevante no contexto amazônico de expansão da soja, da transição de uma agricultura de subsistência para a agricultura mecanizada de larga escala, e do aumento subsequente do valor da terra.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2015 by the Latin American Studies Association
Footnotes
I thank Leah VanWey, J. Timmons Roberts, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Álvaro D'Antona, Peter Houtzager, and Paula Dias; members of the Brown University working group, who provided valuable feedback; and the three anonymous LARR reviewers, whose comments helped improve the article. Previous versions were presented at the Institute of Development Studies in Brighton, England, and at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. Finally, I thank the researchers at Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Indiana University, and Brown University who collected and allowed me to use the data that are the basis of this article.
References
Adams, Ryan T. 2010 “Elite Landowners in Santarém: Ranchers, Gaúchos, and the Arrival of Soybeans in the Amazon.” PhD diss., Indiana University.Google Scholar
Alexander, Robert J. 2003 A History of Organized Labor in Brazil. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Alston, Lee J., Libecap, Gary D., and Mueller, Bernardo 2000 Titles, Conflict, and Land Use: The Development of Property Rights and Land Reform on the Brazilian Amazon Frontier. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Alston, Lee J., Libecap, Gary D., and Schneider, Robert 1996 “The Determinants and Impact of Property Rights: Land Titles on the Brazilian Frontier.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 12 (1): 25–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bannerjee, Abhijit V., Gertler, Paul J., and Ghatak, Maitreesh 2002 “Empowerment and Efficiency: Tenancy Reform in West Bengal.” Journal of Political Economy 110 (2): 239–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbosa, Luiz C. 2000 The Brazilian Amazon Rainforest: Global Ecopolitics, Development, and Democracy. New York: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Besley, Timothy 1995 “Property Rights and Investment Incentives: Theory and Evidence from Ghana.” Journal of Political Economy 103 (5): 903–937.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binswinger, Hans P. 1991 “Brazilian Policies That Encourage Deforestation in the Amazon.” World Development 19 (7): 821–829.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bunker, Stephen G. 1985 Underdeveloping the Amazon: Extraction, Unequal Exchange, and the Failure of the Modern State. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Caviglia-Harris, Jill 2003 “Sustainable Agricultural Practices in Rondônia, Brazil: Do Local Farmer Organizations Affect Adoption Rates?” Economic Development and Cultural Change 52 (1): 23–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chibnik, Michael 1991 “Quasi-Ethnic Groups in Amazonia.” Ethnology 30 (2): 167–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Antona, Álvaro de O., and VanWey, Leah K. 2007 “Estratégia para amostragem da população e da paisagem em pesquisas sobre uso e cobertura da terra.” Revista Brasileira de Estudos de População 24 (2): 263–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Antona, Álvaro de O., VanWey, Leah K., and Hayashi, Corey M. 2006 “Property Size and Land Cover Change in the Brazilian Amazon.” Population and Environment 27:373–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deininger, Klaus W. 2003 Land Policies for Growth and Poverty Reduction. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Demsetz, Harold 1967 “Toward a Theory of Property Rights.” American Economic Review 57 (2): 347–359.Google Scholar
Denevan, William M. 2003 “The Native Populations of Amazonia in 1492 Reconsidered.” Revista de Indias 63 (227): 175–188.Google Scholar
de Sá, Maria Elvira Rocha, da Costa, Solange Maria Gayoso, and de Oliveira Tavares, Luciana Pereira 2006 “O rural-urbano em Santarém: Interfaces e territórios produtivos.” In O rural e o urbano na Amazônia: Diferentes olhares em perspectivas, edited by Cardoso, Ana Cláudia D., 113–157. Belém, Brazil: EDUFPA.Google Scholar
de Soto, Hernando 1989 The Other Path: The Invisible Revolution in the Third World. Translated by Abbott, June. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Feder, Gershon 1987 “Land Ownership Security and Farm Productivity: Evidence from Thailand.” Journal of Development Studies 24 (1): 16–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feder, Gershon, and Feeny, David 1991 “Land Tenure and Property Rights: Theory and Implications for Development Policy.” World Bank Economic Review 5 (1): 135–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foweraker, Joe 2002 The Struggle for Land: A Political Economy of the Pioneer Frontier in Brazil from 1930 to the Present Day. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Futemma, Célia 2000 “Collective Action and Assurance of Property Rights to Natural Resources: A Case Study from the Lower Amazon Region, Santarém, Brazil.” PhD diss., Indiana University.Google Scholar
Futemma, Célia, and Brondízio, Eduardo 2003 “Land Reform and Land-Use Changes in the Lower Amazon: Implications for Agricultural Intensification.” Human Ecology 31 (3): 369–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenpeace International 2007 “Cargill's Controversial Soya Shipping Facility in the Amazon Is Shut Down.” Press release, March 24. www.greenpeace.org/international/en/press/releases/cargill-s-controversial-soya-s/.Google Scholar
Houtzager, Peter P. 1997 “Caught between Church and State: Popular Movements in the Brazilian Countryside, 1964–1989.” PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Houtzager, Peter P. 2001 “Collective Action and Political Authority: Rural Workers, Church, and State in Brazil.” Theory and Society 30 (1): 1–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houtzager, Peter P., and Kurtz, Marcus J. 2000 “The Institutional Roots of Popular Mobilization: State Transformation and Rural Politics in Brazil and Chile, 1960–1995.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 42 (2): 394–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
López, Ramón, and Valdés, Alberto 2000 “Fighting Rural Poverty in Latin America: New Evidence of the Effects of Education, Demographics, and Access to Land.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 49 (1): 197–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maybury-Lewis, Biorn 1994 The Politics of the Possible: The Brazilian Rural Workers' Trade Union Movement, 1964–1985. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Merry, Frank, Amacher, Gregory, and Lima, Eirivelthon 2008 “Land Values in Frontier Settlements of the Brazilian Amazon.” World Development 36 (11): 2390–2401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miceli, Thomas J., Sirmans, C. F., and Kieyah, Joseph 2001 “The Demand for Land Title Registration: Theory with Evidence from Kenya.” American Law and Economics Review 3 (2): 275–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moran, Emilio F., Brondízio, Eduardo S., and VanWey, Leah K. 2005 “Population and Environment in Amazônia: Landscape and Household Dynamics.” In Population, Land Use, and Environment: Research Directions, edited by Entwisle, Barbara and Stern, Paul C., 106–134. Washington, DC: National Academic.Google Scholar
North, Douglass C. 1990 Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nugent, Stephen L. 1993 Amazonian Caboclo Society: An Essay on Invisibility and Peasant Society. Providence, RI: Berg.Google Scholar
Perz, Stephen G. 2001 “Household Demographic Factors as Life Cycle Determinants of Land Use in the Amazon.” Population Research and Policy Review 20 (3): 159–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Platteau, Jean-Philippe 1996 “The Evolutionary Theory of Land Rights as Applied to Sub-Saharan Africa: A Critical Assessment.” Development and Change 27 (1): 29–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reis, Arthur Cézar Ferreira 1979 Santarém: Seu desenvolvimento histórico. 2nd ed. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira.Google Scholar
Summers, Percy M., Browder, John O., Pedlowski, Marcos A. 2004 “Tropical Forest Management and Silvicultural Practices by Small Farmers in the Brazilian Amazon: Recent Farm-Level Evidence from Rondônia.” Forest Ecology and Management 192 (2-3): 161–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Theis, Sophie, and Swette, Briana 2012 “Between Discourses of Extreme Pressure and Modernization: Small Farmers' Diverse Perceptions of Vulnerability to Soy in Santarém, Pará.” Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development 8 (1): 200–218.Google Scholar
VanWey, Leah K., and Cebulko, Kara B. 2007 “Intergenerational Coresidence among Small Farmers in Brazilian Amazônia.” Journal of Marriage and Family 69 (5): 1257–1270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VanWey, Leah. K., D'Antona, Álvaro O., and Brondízio, Eduardo S. 2007 “Household Demographic Change and Land Use/Land Cover Change in the Brazilian Amazon.” Population and Environment 28 (3): 163–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VanWey, Leah K., and Vithayathil, Trina 2013 “Off-Farm Work among Rural Households: A Case Study in the Brazilian Amazon.” Rural Sociology 78 (1): 29–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vosti, Stephen A., Witcover, Julie, and Carpentier, Chantai Line 2002 Agricultural Intensification by Smallholders in the Western Brazilian Amazon: From Deforestation to Sustainable Land Use. Research Report 130. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.Google Scholar
WinklerPrins, Antoinette M. G. A. 2006 “Jute Cultivation in the Lower Amazon, 1940-1990: An Ethnographic Account from Santarém, Pará, Brazil.” Journal of Historical Geography 32 (4): 818–838.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
You have
Access