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The Land Sparing Complex: Environmental Governance, Agricultural Intensification, and State Building in the Brazilian Amazon

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  • Gregory M. Thaler

Abstract

Since 2004, annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen nearly 80 percent, even as agricultural production in the region has increased. Understanding this land use transition requires a theorization of the relationships among environmental governance, agricultural intensification, and state building. Drawing on key informant interviews, municipal-level case studies, and an organizational ethnography of an international environmental organization, I argue that declines in deforestation engineered by new governance arrangements are part of a project of economic development and state building through environmental regulation. This project is implemented by a complex of government, nongovernmental, and corporate actors. I describe the emergence of this complex and the land sparing logic that animates it. Land sparing policy inverts previous logics of state territorialization and environmental conservation with the aim of shifting the Amazonian economy from an extensive mode of extraction to an intensive mode of production. Two municipal case studies follow variation in land sparing policy implementation. The cases identify determinants of land sparing policy effectiveness and collateral effects, including tendencies toward agro-industrial consolidation at the expense of smallholders.

Suggested Citation

  • Gregory M. Thaler, 2017. "The Land Sparing Complex: Environmental Governance, Agricultural Intensification, and State Building in the Brazilian Amazon," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(6), pages 1424-1443, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:raagxx:v:107:y:2017:i:6:p:1424-1443
    DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2017.1309966
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    Cited by:

    1. Thaler, Gregory M. & Viana, Cecilia & Toni, Fabiano, 2019. "From frontier governance to governance frontier: The political geography of Brazil’s Amazon transition," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 59-72.
    2. Kauano, Érico Emed & Silva, José Maria Cardoso & Diniz Filho, José Alexandre Felizola & Michalski, Fernanda, 2020. "Do protected areas hamper economic development of the Amazon region? An analysis of the relationship between protected areas and the economic growth of Brazilian Amazon municipalities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    3. Michelle C. A. Picoli & Ana Rorato & Pedro Leitão & Gilberto Camara & Adeline Maciel & Patrick Hostert & Ieda Del’Arco Sanches, 2020. "Impacts of Public and Private Sector Policies on Soybean and Pasture Expansion in Mato Grosso—Brazil from 2001 to 2017," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, January.

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