TERRITORY IN DISPUTE: from destruction to socio-environmental resilience in the Jaci-Parana Extractive Reserve, a diagnosis built through the GTP System
Territory. Landscape. GTP System. Extractive Reserve. Jaci-Paraná.
The general objective of this study is to elaborate an integrated socio-environmental diagnosis of the disputes and resilience processes of the Jaci-Parana Extractive Reserve, analyzing the interrelations between the physical environment, territorial dynamics, and landscape transformations in the light of Georges Bertrand’s GTP System. The hypothesis guiding this thesis is that the Jaci-Parana Extractive Reserve is under a real threat of extinction as a territory of social reproduction for extractivist communities. Instead of being consolidated as a space for environmental conservation and cultural appreciation of the rubber tapper populations, the reserve has been eroded by political and economic practices that prioritize the expansion of livestock farming. Although vast areas of forests within the reserve have been converted into pasture, our case study in the Jaci-Parana Extractive Reserve demonstrates that there are still environmental conditions that allow it to once again fulfill its objectives through shared management between the State and the extractivist populations. From a methodological point of view, this research is anchored in a multidimensional approach, articulating critical theory, socio-environmental cartography, and historical analysis. The categories of landscape and territory are used as interpretative keys, allowing the articulation of juridical-political and socio-environmental dimensions. The current phytophysiognomy represents the spatial face of ongoing fragmentation and, at the same time, a clue that ecological succession can still move forward. The loss of original vegetation and its replacement by pasture reinforces the dialectic between conservation and livestock production. Current land use expresses a central contradiction: the geosystem indicates an extractivist vocation, yet the territory has been appropriated by cattle ranching. This contradiction underlies the subsequent dialectical analysis. The geosystemic analysis of the Jaci-Parana Extractive Reserve highlights the inadequacy of livestock expansion and justifies the conception of the reserve as an area intended for sustainable extractivism. The current conversion of forests into pastures therefore constitutes not only a social and legal conflict but also a contradiction with the geoenvironmental basis of the territory. The GTP System, in turn, is understood as an important pathway toward an integrated and forward-looking geography that unites peoples, cultures, and sustainability.