The “environmental captivity”: Presenting an issue (and illustrating with two Amazonian examples)

Abstract

In Brazil, several social groups have obtained territorial conquests based on legal-environmental instruments by “environmentalizing” their struggles, such as the creation of “Unidades de Conservação de Uso Sustentável” (Sustainable Use Conservation Units) and “Assentamentos Ambientalmente Diferenciados” (Environmentally Differentiated Settlements created by land reform policies). However, depending on the regulations created, there are serious restrictions on activities that guarantee their socioeconomic reproduction, such as hunting, fishing, and agriculture. This paper’s objective is to present and submit to debate an issue called the notion of “environmental captivity” and how it can help the analysis of certain types of environmental conflicts according to the theories of Geography and Political Ecology. The examples of the “Projetos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável” (Sustainable Development Projects) named “Esperança” and “Virola Jatobá”, located in Anapu, state of Pará (Brazil), are used as a basis of reflection. Nevertheless, this discussion can help to understand similar cases in other spaces. The analysis developed is essentially theoretical-conceptual and was supported by a literature review, documents, and newspaper articles, as well as it was based on previous research about land reform settlements. Through the proposed reflection, we believe that it is possible to understand the reasons that make individuals who fought to escape the captivity of the land think they are in an environmental captivity, as well as some of the implications of this feeling.

Keywords: Environmental Captivity; Sustainable Development Projects (PDS); Amazon; Anapu; Deterritorialization.