UNEQUAL FORMS OF APPROPRIATION OF THE RELIEF IN PONTAL DO PARANAPANEMA – SÃO PAULO

Abstract

The Pontal do Paranapanema, located in the far west of the state of São Paulo, is a territory marked by intense disputes over land ownership. This process helped create one of the largest concentrations of agrarian reform settlements in the country. Thus, the expansion of pastures and, more recently, the sugarcane agribusiness, configure a production model based, among other elements, on land concentration, contrasting with the models practiced in the settlements. Based on studies on the history of occupation of the Pontal do Paranapanema, on data from rural properties available on the INCRA platform, and on the concepts of Environmental Fragility (Ross, 1994), we sought to investigate the qualitative character of the lands in the region, especially with regard to their susceptibility to erosion processes. The result indicated an unequal distribution of land, directing properties with high degrees of susceptibility to erosion towards agrarian reform, while less privileged areas were transformed into rural settlements.