Agrofuel policies in Brazil: paradigmatic and territorial disputes

The expansion of agrofuel crops challenges us to rethink policies, territories, human agency, and the paradigms used to explain them. In Brazil, policies supporting the expansion of agrofuel crops and the intensification of agrofuel production are reorganising rural land use and undermining some forms of participation in the capitalist and family modes of production. To reflect on this new reality, we study peasant movement reactions, proposals, and territorial disputes with agribusiness. Using the Pontal do Paranapanema region of São Paulo state as a case in point, the paper analyses territorial disputes between expanding sugarcane plantations and agrarian reform settlements as well as biodiesel production projects developed by the Landless Workers Movement (MST) and the Western São Paulo Federation of Settlement and Family Farmer Associations (FAAFOP). It also analyses the agrofuel policies of other peasant organisations, including Via Campesina. The production of agrofuels has changed the processes of land acquisition and use by both agribusiness and the peasantry, provoking new insights into the nature of territorial conflicts and thereby stimulating the need to revise perspectives on the agrarian question in Brazil.

Outcome of the agrarian reform in Brazil during the last two decades

The agrarian reform allows for land redistribution and gives rural workers the opportunity to develop their life projects, rescuing the dignity of a historically excluded population. The conquest of the land carries significances that span from the rescue of citizenship to the improvement of living conditions due to the acquisition of goods, products and services. It is pointed out that in Brazil there still exists a marked concentration of large-landed estates. In this sense, this work had the objective of analyzing the Brazilian agrarian reform process during the last two decades. In this period the country had three Presidents, two of them elected with the support of the Rural Landless Workers Movement, increasing the expectations in relation to the fulfillment of the agrarian reform. The advances in the policies of rural settlements are notable; however, the structure of large-land estates remains unaltered. In the last two years (2011 and 2012) the number of settled families, as well as the number of settlements accomplished, were the worst since 2006. The priority of the current government is the eradication of extreme poverty and, in this sense, the agrarian reform becomes an essential policy to contribute to such goal, since with the distribution of the property of the land also diminishes the concentration of wealth.

Produtores familiares e estratégias ligadas à terra

A manutenção e/ou a ampliação da terra compõem o eixo central em torno do qual os produtores familiares organizam sua vida e seu trabalho. Este artigo analisa as estratégias desses produtores em relação à divisão de herança e à sucessão, e as formas que utilizam para aquisição de novas áreas. O levantamento das características das famílias e da propriedade foi realizado por meio de um questionário aplicado junto a 89 produtores familiares de três municípios da mesorregião de São José do Rio Preto (SP). Posteriormente foi entrevistado um terço dos produtores de cada município que havia respondido ao questionário. A análise das estratégias fundiárias mostrou uma grande diversidade na forma de partilhar a herança e de conduzir a sucessão, sendo que ambos os processos são apoiados, basicamente, em regras tradicionais, embora mantenham uma fachada de adequação às normas legais. Quanto às estratégias de aquisição de mais terras, observou-se que os produtores são capazes de organizar complexas formas de capitalização, centradas em maiores esforços no trabalho e na contenção de gastos, além da utilização de políticas públicas favoráveis e de práticas costumeiras. Os arranjos intra-familiares e as formas de cooperação ligadas ao parentesco mais amplo também se mostraram importantes para a ampliação da propriedade.

A Via Campesina Brasil e a avaliação da primeira década de impactos da reforma agrária do Banco Mundial

During the past decade, influenced strongly by World Bank land policies, many governments instituted a new mode of recreating the peasantry, one supposedly led by market forces through credit programs secured by land. Supported by large landowner organizations, defended as a conquest by the rural labor movement and combated by member organizations of the Via Campesina, the new mode of peasant renovation has inspired a diversity of interpretations both positive and negative. To evaluate these events, this article seeks to demonstrate the World Bank's intentionality in urging the implementation of market-led agrarian reform in developing countries; discusses the construction of immaterial territories in the context of this policy; analyzes the development of a people's think tank in response to the agitation of the Via Campesina Brazil and the negative impact of the credit system on peasants.

The distribution of agricultural land and the question of agrarian reform in Brazil

Agrarian reform has long been an acute issue in Brazil, where the distribution of cultivable land is extremely unequal. The Land Statute adopted by the military in 1964 constituted a genuine reform programme, which, however, was never implemented as the government chose to modernize agriculture and expand cultivated areas. This has prevented the poorest from having access to the land.-from English summary

Anti-poverty policies in Brazil: Reviewing the past ten years

This article reviews the main anti-poverty policies implemented in Brazil from the early 1990s to the early 2000s. These include focused and universal policies - such as education and health care - as well as the rural development, a 'middle ground' policy. Though the inter-municipal consortium, a new institutional arrangement gathering municipalities together, has emerged as a promising policy implementation tool, anti-poverty policies have faced implementation difficulties. Lack of coordination between different programs, even within the same policy area, has impaired their effectiveness. As a consequence, compensatory programs, based on monetary transfers to poor families, which face fewer implementation problems, have become the dominant type of anti-poverty policies in Brazil. Despite these shortcomings, a small Brazilian state, Santa Catarina, was able to reduce by 46 percent the number of individuals living in poverty in just ten years. This is a sign that fighting poverty can, after all, be a feasible endeavor. © 2004 IIAS, SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi).

Is the environmental policies procedures a barrier to development of inland navigation and port management? A case of study in Brazil

The main objective of this article is to discuss the Brazilian environmental legislation and policies towards the development of navigation and port management. The research illustrated some difficulties faced by the country and make suggestions to overcome it. The construction of the environmental legal framework began in the early 1960s and resulted in a very complex system, as a consequence of policies adopted by the country. Nowadays Brazilian environmental policies are developed in democratic and participative way, although with elevated degree of bureaucracy and lack of integration among the several governmental agencies, which makes the approval of environmental certifications demand several years for new port projects or improvements, which delays the economic development of the country. Efforts have been made to simplify the licensing process. As result of this research two flowchart for environmental licenses of ports installation are shown: The first shows the process until 2009 and the second shows the process nowadays. This become an important issue due the fact that inland navigation is one of the less pollutant modes of transportation, and although, the process of environmental certification was simplified, if compare with 2009, it is still complex and time-consuming, delaying the development of the infrastructure. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Imprensa, educação e sociedade no interior paulista: Ribeirão Preto (1948-1959)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Cabeceiras do Rio Pardo: ocupação e formação da região de Caconde-SP (1765-1820)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Produção territorial das reformas agrárias no Brasil

Pós-graduação em Geografia - FCT

Imperialismo e educação do campo: uma análise das políticas educacionais no estado de Rondônia a partir de 1990

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

O associativismo na região do Pontal do Paranapanema-SP: limites e possibilidades para o desenvolvimento rural

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

O entroncamento das políticas agrárias no Maranhão: encontros e desencontros institucionais na Microrregião Geográfica de Itapecuru Mirim

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Media Education and Brazilian Educational Policies for the Enhancement of Learning

As media education concepts and practices have been disseminated and strengthened in European countries and Americas, the policies responsible for that expansion remain little known, particularly in countries where the achievements have been recently noted. That is the case for Brazil, where there have been new opportunities for media education, considered as a valuable resource to help accomplish goals of the educational system. This paper looks into the contribution of media education to the enhancement of teaching and learning in the context of innovations brought by recent policies of the Brazilian Ministry of Education. After educational reform programmes which brought the opportunity for emerging fields such as media education, we produced teaching material and conducted a series of workshops with students and teachers from state secondary schools. By reading and producing multimedia information about local public services available to young people, pupils learned about democracy, citizenship, civic engagement, media language, and identity. Lessons from our experiment are discussed against the backdrop of education policies being implemented to ameliorate harsh conditions resulting from the recent economic crisis. We suggest that media education can help by creating a learning environment in which the students become aware of the value of educational attainments.