Territorial Organization in the Brazilian Savanah: from the monoculture frontier to sociobiodiversity-based models

Abstract

The Brazilian Savannah is a large biogeographic region of great sociocultural and ecological value. This richness has been ignored by the agricultural expansion currently subordinated to the global “commodi-ties” agribusiness. The severity of this process is furthered aggravated by the invisibility of the Brazilian savannah’s wealth. With the focus of the environmental concern directed primarily to the Amazon, the destruction of the Brazilian savannah has gone unnoticed by the media and the public opinion. However, there is a long history of integration between the several local traditional communities and the savannah ecosystems, and a fight for the survival of its ways of life. This is reflected on the strong demand for the creation of Extractive Reserves (Resex) in the Brazilian savannah. This article highlights the creation of these Conservation Areas as an important territorial organization mechanism for the Brazilian savannah that will certainly bring to light the traditionally invisible local communities that we can best call “the Brazilian Savannah People”. The article also draws attention to the creation of 7 Resex now taking place in the Minas Gerais’s savannah, emphasizing the recovery of the tradition that used to see the chapadas as Gerais (literally, general), that is, lands of common use, as well as other meanings contained in the particular idioms of the people that inhabit the hinterland of Minas Gerais.