New territorializations of the Amazonian economic frontier:

the Transamazonian axis from Labrea to Apuí - agribusiness, conflicts and environmental impacts

Abstract

This article presents a study of the new territorial features of the economic frontier in the south-western Amazon, based on the issue of the expansion of grain agribusiness and its impacts on other existing forms of production, such as the forest. The spatial focus was the Transamazon Highway between the cities of Labrea and Apuí, in the state of Amazonas. To this end, studies were carried out based on bibliographical references, technical reports, journalistic information about the region and fieldwork in the region, with systematic on-site observations. It can therefore be understood that the expansion of agribusiness in the region reflects aspects of the reterritorialization of agrarian capitalism in the South-Western Amazon.  In this process, what is happening in the region under study reflects the spatial relocation of frontier agents from Mato Grosso, through Rondônia Acre and the south of the state of Amazonas, where grain agribusiness is expanding into lands that were previously occupied by activities such as cattle ranching and family farming. As a result of this loss of space for these activities, these cattle ranchers and family farmers have also started to look for other areas, especially more distant and/or forested ones that offer great possibilities for being incorporated into the productive space, even if they require deforestation for the practice of farming and subsistence agriculture. In all of this, there have been major expressions of environmental, social and economic impacts, along with increased signs of social conflicts, as part of this new territorialization of agrarian capitalism in the region