FROM THE TERRITORIAL POLICIES OF THE FRONTIER OPENING IN THE AMAZON TO THE ADVANCE OF NEO-EXTRACTIVISM

Abstract

The advance of the frontier, manifested through territorial policies materialized in the Legal Amazon (Amazônia Legal), facilitated its crystallization into a neo-extractivist character from the time the frontier was opened, between the years 1960 and 2023. Thus, the Legal Amazon is established as the research area for this study, by virtue of being the target of this frontier expansion, precisely during the period expressed above. Therefore, the objective of this study to analyze how the territorial policies implemented in the Amazon influenced the transition from the opening of the frontier to the neo-extractivist advance, highlighting how this process is driven by deforestation, the installation of infrastructure projects, and mining activities, which shifted and intensified between the years 1960 and 2022. The methodology consists of a bibliographic review, documentary research, and data acquisition and systematization. The main data used includes data from the Annual Mapping Project of Land Use and Cover in Brazil (MapBiomas), the National Register of Conservation Units (CNUC), the National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI), the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL), the National Mining Agency (ANM), and, finally, the main public territorial policies concerning the Amazon. The main results indicated in this study verify that, between the opening of the frontier and the advance of the neo-extractivist frontier, there was a significant increase in the number of deforestation incidents, the volume of roads, hydroelectric power plants, mining areas, and waterways, expanding the frontier’s reach over the limits of the Amazon and, specifically, over the Conservation Units. Thus, it is concluded that the frontier reveals the same occupational pattern of Brazil, which has expanded since the Atlantic coast, always incorporating areas and territories seen and deemed necessary for economic development.