THE EXPANSION OF THE AGROFORESTRY FRONTIER OF EUCALYPTUS AND THE EXPROPRIATION OF WORKERS FROM BABAÇU PALM GROVES IN THE AMAZON REGION OF MARANHÃO.

Josefa Salete Barbosa Cavalcanti; Filipe da cunha Gomes

Todos os Trabalhos

Trabalho

DOI

10.29327/9786527226680.1448921

Título do Trabalho

THE EXPANSION OF THE AGROFORESTRY FRONTIER OF EUCALYPTUS AND THE EXPROPRIATION OF WORKERS FROM BABAÇU PALM GROVES IN THE AMAZON REGION OF MARANHÃO.

Autores

Josefa Salete Barbosa Cavalcanti
Filipe da cunha Gomes

Modalidade

IRSA - Congresso Mundial de Sociologia Rural (01/10/2025 a 20/01/2026)

Área temática

IRSA 20 - Capitalist forestry, rural labor, and land injustices: towards a comparative analysis of the role of forests and tree plantations in contemporary land questions, agrarian questions and rural development

Data de Publicação

06/08/2026

País da Publicação

Brasil

Idioma da Publicação

pt-BR

Página do Trabalho

https://www.even3.com.br/anais/sober-irsa2026/1448921-the-expansion-of-the-agroforestry-frontier-of-eucalyptus-and-the-expropriation-of-workers-from-babacu-palm-grove

ISBN

978-65-272-2668-0

Palavras-Chave

Forestry, Amazônia-Maranhão, labor peasant territories, socio-environmental conflicts, rural development.

Resumo

The growth of eucalyptus plantations in the Brazilian Amazon and the concomitant expansion of the Suzano agro-industrial company in the territories of Maranhão promoted substantial changes in the ways in which nature is appropriated, labor is expropriated, and territories are controlled by traditional populations. In the Brazilian context, this process takes unique forms stemming from the expansion of capitalist forestry in the rural world, which redefines the uses and governance of territories, restructures labor relations, and intensifies socio-environmental conflicts. This work takes as its empirical unit the expansion of the agroforestry frontier in the Amazon region of Maranhão, with an emphasis on eucalyptus monoculture along the Estrada do Arroz (Rice Road), located in the municipality of Imperatriz, a border area with the states of Pará and Tocantins. Therefore, this study seeks to analyze how industrial forestry, has deepened processes of expropriation in peasant territories, directly affecting forms of common land use and the ways of life of traditional peoples and communities, especially the self-identified babaçu coconut breakers. In Imperatriz, the expansion of eucalyptus plantations has been discursively presented as a driver of development and job creation, cloaked in business strategies forged in the rhetoric of environmental sustainability, but in practice, it has exacerbated processes of land concentration, precarious rural work, and confrontation with peasant and traditional territorialities. The aim of this contribution is to problematize the distinction between forests and forest plantations, taking as a reference the dispute between the struggles for the preservation of babaçu palm groves, highlighting how the classification of eucalyptus monocultures as "forests" operates as a business strategy that masks the socio-environmental conflicts associated with their expansion. In this sense, the analysis proposes a reflection on the role of "forest plantations" in contemporary disputes over land rights, land issues, and rural development.

Título do Evento: 16th World Congress of Rural Sociology and 64th Congress of the Brazilian Society of Rural Economics, Management and Sociology
Cidade do Evento: Porto Alegre
Título dos Anais do Evento: Anais do 64º Congresso da SOBER e XVI Congresso Mundial de Sociologia Rural (IRSA)
Nome da Editora: Even3
Meio de Divulgação: Meio Digital
DOI

Como citar

CAVALCANTI, Josefa Salete Barbosa; GOMES, Filipe da cunha. THE EXPANSION OF THE AGROFORESTRY FRONTIER OF EUCALYPTUS AND THE EXPROPRIATION OF WORKERS FROM BABAÇU PALM GROVES IN THE AMAZON REGION OF MARANHÃO... In: Anais do 64º Congresso da SOBER e XVI Congresso Mundial de Sociologia Rural (IRSA). Anais...Porto Alegre(RS) UFRGS, 2026. Disponível em: https//www.even3.com.br/anais/sober-irsa2026/1448921-THE-EXPANSION-OF-THE-AGROFORESTRY-FRONTIER-OF-EUCALYPTUS-AND-THE-EXPROPRIATION-OF-WORKERS-FROM-BABACU-PALM-GROVE. Acesso em: 21/09/2026