Maurício Torres

• Professor at Federal University of Para

Demands for territorial recognition are foundational to the claiming of rights by forest‐proximate people who attempt to conserve their forests. The rights of these often‐marginalized populations have been largely overlooked by conservationists, yet they are central to achieving people‐centered conservation. We further developed the concept of fore...

We present an empirically-grounded exploration of food sovereignty among Brazilian Amazonian forest-proximate peoples, revealing five dimensions bound together by autonomy: family farming, women's work, agrobiodiversity, care for nature and a preference for own produced over industrial food. We examine the compatibility of this conceptualisation of...

This paper explores autodemarcations on the Tapajós River, Brazilian Amazonia, wherein a traditional community --- the beiradeiros (riverbank inhabitants) --- and the Indigenous Munduruku together mark the boundaries of their lands and remove invaders in their struggles for the recognition of territorial rights from the state. We approach autodemar...

In many industrialised societies, the COVID-19 pandemic has been painted as an unprecedented moment caused by human abuse of nature. Responses to it have, in turn, temporarily slowed down human impacts upon nature. This has led to a rallying cry against human encroachment into what are claimed to be pristine wildernesses. Reflecting upon historic,...

In many industrialised societies, the COVID-19 pandemic has been painted as an unprecedented moment caused by human abuse of nature. Responses to it have, in turn, temporarily slowed down human impacts upon nature. This has led to a rallying cry against human encroachment into what are claimed to be pristine wildernesses. Reflecting upon historic,...

Este caderno de estudos foi elaborado para as famílias assentadas no Projeto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (PDS) Virola-Jatobá e seus parceiros pensarem juntos “quem tem o direito de dizer o direito” sobre as terras e florestas nessa modalidade de assentamento. Ou seja, quem pode afirmar o que é o certo dentro de um PDS? O pesquisador Bourdieu afi...

Legislation governing strict-protection nature reserves in Brazil in principle precludes human habitation, but virtually all Amazon reserves are nonetheless inhabited. Historical ecology research reported herein assesses the impacts of occupation and resource use by beiradeiros (forest peasants) on the forests of a strictly designated nature reserv...

This article focuses on the impacts of the Public Forest Management Law on traditionally occupied territories, by analyzing the case of Crepori National Forest, in the state of Pará. The origins of the modalities of protected areas that focus primarily on high-tech exploitation are the starting point of the exposition, which highlights the elements...

This paper contributes to the theory of environmentality-the 'conduct of conduct' with regard to the environment by incorporating Foucault's notion of counter-conducts to elucidate the political subjectivities emergent from the performance of dissent in relation to different forms of power-sovereign, disciplinary and biopower-through which a spatia...

The 280,000 km² of indigenous lands and protected areas (ILPAs) of the Xingu river basin form a continuous forest corridor inhabited by 25 indigenous peoples and about 185 riverine (ribeirinho) families. Spanning one of the world's most intense deforestation zones in Pará and Mato Grosso states, the Xingu ILPAs exemplify how Brazilian government po...

Logo no início de 2007, terminado o primeiro mandato do presidente Lula, o Ministério do Desenvolvimento Agrário (MDA) apresenta vultosos números de famílias assentadas pela Superintendência do Incra n° 30, no oeste paraense. Em pouco tempo, esses dados são desmascarados e questionados judicialmente, descortinando-se como, além da inflação de númer...

Logo no início de 2007, terminado o primeiro mandato do presidente Lula, o Ministério do Desenvolvimento Agrário (MDA) apresenta vultosos números de famílias assentadas pela Superintendência do Incra n° 30, no oeste paraense. Em pouco tempo, esses dados são desmascarados e questionados judicialmente, descortinando-se como, além da inflação de númer...

After a 40 year battle, Brazil's grandiose plan to tap the hydropower of the Amazon is coming apart at the seams. Sue Branford and Maurício Torres report

A memória dos povos da floresta é obstáculo efetivo à grilagem de terras na Amazônia. Isso se dá por dois principais motivos: primeiro, porque oralmente (no mais das vezes), a memória faz vir à tona uma "história subterrânea" dos territórios grilados e desmente o constructo da "versão oficial", documental, surgido na química fantástica dos fóruns e...

The 280 000 km² Xingu indigenous lands and protected areas (ILPAs) corridor, inhabited by 24 indigenous peoples and about 215 riverine (ribeirinho) families, lies across active agriculture frontiers in some of the historically highest-deforestation regions of the Amazon. Much of the Xingu is anthropogenic landscape, densely inhabited and manag...