Dissertation Research: Participation Within and Collaboration Between Brazil's Environmental and Agrarian Reform Movements in Bahia's Atlantic Forest

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Contemporary Brazil is the site of heated debate among small-scale farmers, international scientists, government officials, and large conservation organizations over the control of some of the earth's most pristine natural lands. This debate centers on the environmental and land reform movements. Environmentalists cite pressure on protected areas from small-scale farmers as one of the greatest threats to conservation. Landless Brazilians in search of a plot to farm resent areas set aside for "plants rather than people." Both movements claim to consider the perspectives of those living near contested areas, yet their reasons for doing so greatly vary. This project focuses on two protected areas in Brazil's Atlantic Forest, the second most threatened ecosystem on earth. It examines how local people living near these areas become active in the environmental or land reform movements. It also explores how other forces, such as the Brazilian government and international environmental organizations, engage with local interests when making land use decisions. This study concludes by looking at whether there are, indeed, successful examples of collaboration despite the inherent differences in the environmental and land reform movements. Such analysis is critical for informing key debates within the social sciences on how social movements function and for furthering our understanding of what happens when the agendas of prominent movements clash. This focus is timely, as the land use debate is currently being played out in the media, as well as in the public and the private sectors, both in Brazil as well as elsewhere in the world. Broader Impacts: Brazil's environmental and land reform movements affect the management of some of the earth's most ecologically important natural areas as well as social and economic policy that affects millions of landless people. Starting with the perspectives of those who live near the very lands these movements seek to control, and mapping the relationship between these interests and broader forces such as governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations will provide an analysis that considers both local and global interests in the evolving discussion of land management. By examining the environmental and land reform movements, both on their own as well as in relation to each other, this project aims to foster mutually beneficial relationships and policies between different land use interests. The subject as well as the methodology of this study will inform our understanding of an important contemporary debate by revealing lessons on participation, representation and collaboration that extend far beyond Brazil's geographic borders.