ABSTRACT
This chapter presents results from a project undertaken between 2010 and 2016, entitled ‘Lands and Rights in Troubled Water’ (or ‘LAR’), funded by the Dutch NWO-WOTRO (Science for Global Development) Programme; the project focussed on understanding and mitigating conflicts over natural resources in Colombia and Brazil. This chapter discusses the situation in Brazil based on a number of different methods, including: (1) a review of the relevant literature in English and Portuguese from a variety of disciplines (e.g., archaeology, biology, criminology, history, sociology), as well as reports from public institutions, NGOs, and press articles; and (2) qualitative methods, such as observations and interviews, which were conducted during different research periods (of weeks and months) between 2011 and 2018—two years after the conclusion of the LAR project. This chapter begins with a discussion of the scope and extent of deforestation worldwide before turning to an argument as to why tropical deforestation could and should be studied as a green criminological issue. Next, this chapter offers an historical overview of the Amazon’s human population, demonstrating how Indigenous peoples, including ‘uncontacted tribes’, are disproportionally threatened and victimised by the deforestation frontier. The final section discusses a criminological pilot or field experiment of GPS-supported community-based forest crime prevention. This chapter concludes by trying to situate Brazil’s deforestation for soy cultivation in the context of global consumer markets, thereby demonstrating that an ostensibly national or regional issue has international—indeed, worldwide—dimensions.
