Socio-ecological conflict in Quilombola territory: land titling and ecosystem health

Ecosystem-based solutions are key to mitigating climate change and preserving a perpetually inhabitable planet under which humans, non-human animals, and the ecosystems they share can thrive. Central to ecosystem preservation are land tenure systems, which determine who has access to ecosystem resources and how this access is governed, and are often hotly contested. The growing recognition that land is valued, used, and protected differently by different agents has fueled a recent increase in large-scale analyses of land tenure systems and their effects on deforestation and other forms of ecosystem change. However, these effects are highly context dependent, and complementary research conducted at the community level has lagged behind its landscape- or national-level counterparts. Using ethnographic, qualitative, and quantitative methods, we collaborated with the Quilombola complex of Mata Cavalo in the midwest of Brazil to examine how their struggle for territorial recognition undermines the health of the Pantanal and Cerrado biomes with which they coexist. Our findings indicate that internal threats to the territory arise from exploitative labor practices and institutional racism, while the advancing frontier of extractive industries—agribusinesses, cattle ranches, and gold mines—poses a constant external threat. Together, these internal and external threats are undermining Quilombola rights and resistance in the territory of Mata Cavalo and accelerating ecological destruction.