Since the late 20th century, the Brazilian Amazon has faced deep structural transformations driven by top-down development projects often disconnected from local needs and territorial specificities. Over the centuries, these projects have gained new contours and interests. In the Marajó Archipelago, located in the Eastern Amazon, the municipality of Salvaterra has experienced, since 2009, an expansion of rice monoculture, propelled by state support, resulting in socio-environmental degradation and land conflicts. Salvaterra concentrates the highest density of quilombola communities per square kilometer in Brazil, who face increasing threats to their territories, food security, water security, and cultural practices. This presentation is connected with research findings that explore how these communities resist and reconfigure development through socio-biodiversity-based practices and grassroots mobilization. Emphasis is placed on the agrobiodiversity of traditional farming plots (roças), agroforestry homegardens, food and nutrition education initiatives in quilombola schools, and collective organizations such as the Quilombola Action and Resistance Center (NARQ), created by young quilombola women, and a group of women farmers who organize a quilombola market. These initiatives embody counter-hegemonic responses that integrate traditional knowledge, environmental stewardship, food sovereignty, and rights-based advocacy. The studies to be presented adopt a socio-material, actor-oriented approach grounded in the sociology and anthropology of development. Among the objectives of these studies is to unpack how development discourses and practices intersect with territorial transformations and power asymmetries. In the broader context of the upcoming COP-30 in Belém, the combined research findings highlight the urgency of centering local agency and co-producing alternatives grounded in territorial justice.
Date
Tuesday July 15, 2025