Property Rights and Conflict in the Brazilian Amazon

这项研究建立在之前的一个项目“巴西边境的产权和土地使用”的基础上，研究了在亚马逊地区提供土地产权时发生暴力的情况，以及暴力对土地价值、土地使用和投资以及土地保有权的经济影响。这是一个重要的课题，因为有保障的土地保有权日益被视为投资和自然资源最终如何开发的重要条件，特别是发展中国家的森林和生物多样性。随之而来的问题是，什么政策将经常提供使用权以支持经济发展，这一过程何时可能导致冲突和暴力，因为经济租金的消散和自然资源的过度开采？对于一个以大多数标准衡量都很贫穷的人民和一个拥有丰富自然资源的地区来说，亚马孙地区的权属政策及其与暴力的潜在联系是一个需要进一步科学研究的关键问题。该项目涉及收集和分析关于暴力和土地所有权的两个未开发的数据来源。利用这些数据和其他人口普查数据，我们将研究暴力、土地价值、土地保有权和投资之间的相互作用。分析将涉及一种两阶段计量经济学技术，该技术已被开发出来，用于同时检查土地价值、权属、投资和暴力之间的关系。还将从次要来源收集有关亚马逊结算和租赁政策形成的其他数据。此外，将在一个地区对土地索赔人进行调查，该地区在1970-1985年期间享有政府对放牧的大量补贴，并且在土地暴力冲突中死亡人数最多。这些补贴很重要，因为它们大大提高了预期的土地租金，并可能鼓励牧场主和小索赔人或擅自占用者迅速和相互冲突地在该地区定居。此外，负责土地所有权的土地机构可能没有及时提供可靠的土地所有权。这将加剧混乱和对土地及其自然资源的过度开发。***从这些调查和结果分析中，我们可以确定土地产权暴力发生的条件及其对土地价值和投资的影响。从1992年到1996/1997年，Tailandia将提供关于定居者的时间序列数据集（租住权、地块大小、土地价值、投资、年龄、性别、教育和其他社会经济特征、与市场的距离、财富），这对其他研究人员来说将是有价值的。我们已经收集了六个地点1992- 1993年249个小户主的调查数据。对其中一部分的调查将使我们能够观察到营业额和合并、投资和土地价值的变化。随着巴西经济的总体增长，我们预计亚马逊地区的经济活动将更加活跃。巴西的亚马逊河大部分地区仍然不稳定，被森林覆盖。根据最近的陆地卫星图像估计，巴西亚马逊地区大约有10%的森林被砍伐。因此，政策影响该地区大部分国家的命运还为时不晚。关于亚马逊的定居和随之而来的冲突已经写了很多。缺乏的是关于冲突发生的地点和时间的文件，以及对暴力的决定因素和影响的分析。研究小组开发了有关该地区的技能和知识、终身教职政策、第一手和第二手数据来源以及调查技术。

This research builds on a previous project, "Property Rights and Land Use on the Brazilian Frontier", by examining the circumstances under which violence occurs in providing property rights to land in the Amazon and its economic impact on land values, land use and investment, and tenure. This is an important topic because secure land tenure increasingly is viewed as an important condition for investment and how natural resources are ultimately exploited, particularly forests and biodiversity in developing countries. The question arises, what policies will provide tenure routinely to support economic development and when is the process likely to lead to conflict and violence with the dissipation of economic rents and over exploitation of natural resources? For a people who are poor by most standards and for a region with rich natural resources, tenure policies and their potential link to violence in the Amazon is a critical issue in need of further scientific study. This project involves collecting and analyzing two unexploited sources of data on violence and land tenuring. Using these data along with other census data, the interaction among violence, land value, tenure, and investment will be examined. The analysis will involve a two stage econometric technique that has been developed to examine the simultaneous relationships among land value, tenure, investment, and violence. Additional data will also be collected from secondary sources on policy formation regarding Amazon settlement and tenuring. In addition, land claimants will be surveyed in a region which enjoyed major government subsidies for ranching and also experienced the most deaths from violent conflict over land between 1970-1985. These subsidies are important because they significantly raised expected land rents and may have encouraged rapid and conflicting settlement of the region by both ranchers and by small claimants or squatters. Moreover, land agencies responsible for titling, may not have provided secure title to land in a timely fashion. which would have added to chaotic and over exploitation of the land and its natural resources. *** From these surveys and the analysis of the results, we can determine the conditions under which violence over property rights to land occurs and its impact on land value and investment. Tailandia will provide a time-series data set on settlers (tenure, plot size, land value, investment, age, sex, education and other socio-economic characteristics, distance to market, wealth) from 1992 through 1996/1997 that will be valuable to other researchers. We already have assembled survey data for six sites for 1992-93 for 249 small holders. The resurvey of part of this group will allow us to observe changes in turnover and consolidation, investment, and land value. With increased economic growth in Brazil in general, we expect greater activity in the Amazon. The Amazon in Brazil is still largely unsettled and covered with forest. Recent estimates from land satellite imagery indicate that approximately 10 percent of the Brazilian Amazon is deforested. It is thus not too late for policy to affect the fate of much of the region. Much has been written about the settlement of the Amazon and the attendant conflict associated with it. What is lacking is documentation as to where and when conflicts arose and an analysis of the determinants and impact of violence. The research team has developed skills and knowledge of the region, tenuring policies, primary and secondary data sources, and survey technqiues.