Large projects, borders and Indigenous Lands (LI) in the Amazon: appropriation of natural resources, risks and socio-environmental conflicts

Under the neo-extractivist capitalist mode of production, borders are being dissolved without first disintegrating territories, cultures and worlds. Transformations accumulate in ecology and among peoples, both within national territorial boundaries and at borders between countries, as exemplified by the Venezuela-Brazil border. In the Amazon, this process involves the presence of capital and the state, with widespread diffusion of large projects for the appropriation of natural resources, forging a contradictory and conflict-ridden dynamic. Thus, the research aims to understand the private appropriation of natural resources, as well as the risks and conflicts produced by large projects that (de)structure borders. For this purpose, the research methodology is based on a political ecology approach, utilizing bibliographic and documentary data. For the case of the Mother Maria Indigenous Land (MMIL), data from the MapBiomas platform were used and processed with geoprocessing tools. The results showed that the surrounding area, or the internal border, of MMIL underwent an intense process of vegetation replacement, driven by large cattle ranching, road, and railway projects. Regarding the Yanomami Indigenous Land, the findings indicate the pressure from large mining and road projects, with the integration of an illegal gold extraction circuit that has resulted in environmental pollution, explicit violence, and health issues on both sides of the Brazil-Venezuela border. Therefore, the essay suggests alternatives such as the creation of buffer zones, strengthening of the demarcation of indigenous areas, and the reconstruction of environmental management at both national and Pan-Amazonian levels. Over a longer timeframe and with increased intensity in social activism, it points to the necessity of a structural shift away from the predatory economic model.