The Shanty Town, Final Stage of Rural Development? The Case of Acre

Abstract

The corporate invasion of Amazonia, characterised by the implantation of agro-ranching and mineral enterprises in areas that had formerly been occupied by peasant farmers, rubber-tappers and indigenous groups, has severe social and economic repercussions for the region as a whole. In Acre, which had no known mineral resources, the principal activity of the newly arrived entrepreneurs was ranching, although in many instances this was merely a façade for speculation in land. Such ranching activity, whether real or phantom, involved the clearance of large areas of rainforest which, firstly, destroyed the economic basis of traditional extractivist and subsistence activity and, secondly, disrupted whole communities as the rural population was forced to abandon its land to swell the ranks of the urban poor. In opposition to this process, the principal role of rural communities has been to struggle to impede its development, to maintain access to land. Thus, whereas ranchers seek to claim exclusive use of and definitive rights to land, to deny others access to it, the struggle of the rural population and allied groups represents a move towards the redemocratisation of land, the promotion of its social use.