The geography of borders in the municipality of Porto Velho: União Bandeirantes and Rio Pardo and the reflexes of the negligence of the territorial management of the state in Rondônia

Abstract

Porto Velho is located in the southern Amazon and shows spatial changes that allow us to understand the dynamics of the rural areas in Rondônia state, through the expansion of the agricultural frontier in search of new areas for livestock activity and, later, monoculture of soybeans and other grains that are part of the commodities traded by the state. Between 1999 and 2018, União Bandeirantes and Rio Pardo expressed similar forms of occupation, environmental, territorial and social impacts that are part of the agricultural frontier expansion process. Among impacts are an increase in deforestation and environmental degradation that led/provide pressures, tensions and conflicts in the Protected Areas: Karipuna Indigenous Land, Jacy-Paraná Resex and Bom Futuro National Forest. In this time frame, we aim to understand the historical materiality that resulted from the advance of agricultural capital in forest areas, linked to the process of large-scale land incorporation. These arable lands place Brazil in the contradiction of expanding agriculture and neglecting the Socioeconomic and Ecological Zoning (ZSEE), harmfully affecting indigenous peoples and traditional communities that are made invisible, in addition to their expulsions being minimized, naturalized as consequences of the “economic development” of the country. Anchored in the dialectical method and qualitative-quantitative methodology, we analyzed data on agricultural production, deforestation and mineral extraction, as a reflection of the denial of the ZSEE in União Bandeirantes and Rio Pardo.

Keywords: Border; Livestock; Peasantry; Logging; Protected Areas.