From the appropriation of public lands to the dynamics of deforestation: the formation of the land market in the Amazon (1970-2017)

Abstract

Abstract Based on a periodization that considers the prevailing institutional framework for the rural area of the Amazon (1970-1985, the military dictatorship; 1985-2006, redemocratization; and 2006-2017, emphasis on the environment), with data from the Agricultural Censuses, this article presents the dimensions and structural compositions of the land stocks appropriated by rural establishments, in order to discuss the features of the agents that demarcate the land issue and the land market in the region. By emphasizing the production of unforested lands as being the very reason for the land market, with the deforestation process as its foundation, the article highlights the countercyclical manner in which this market has reacted in relation to the economy of agricultural products, having, until 2005, formed high stocks of deforested land, and liquidating them with speculative gains over the following years. Lastly, it demonstrates the impact of this process on the inequality of the structure of land ownership across the region and Brazil.