The Risks of Commodifying Poverty: Rural Communities, Quilombola Identity, and Nature Conservation in Brazil

Abstract

"Multicultural policies focusing on land devolution represent an effort on the part o the state and sectors of the civil society aiming at empowering 'traditional communities' (e.g., quilombolas) by recognizing rights based on territorial ancestry and ethnicity. Concurrently, environmental policies have limited the use of many of these areas through the creation of protected reserves. In this essay we discuss the contradictions created by the intersection of these policies and the implications of land devolution within protected areas based on constructed criteria of ethnicity. We discuss the limitations and implications of these strategies to achieve, concomitantly, environmental conservation and improvements in the well-being of marginalized rural populations."