Contentious Agency and Natural Resource Politics The looming depletion of non-renewable resources has increased the global land grab in the past decade. So far, however, the question of how and when people can influence economic outcomes has received little attention in the studyof social movements. Based on in-depth ethnographic field research since 2003 in the industrial forestry expansion frontiers in Brazil and elsewhere in the global South, this book presents a novel theory to explain how the interaction between resis- tance, companies and the state determines investment outcomes. The promo- tion of contentious agency by organizing and politicizing, campaigning, protesting, networking and engaging in state and corporate-remediated poli- tics whilst maintaining autonomy is central to explaining how impacted peopleinfluenceresourceflows,andblockorslowprojectstheydeemharmful to their livelihoods and the environment. The conflicts between globalizing paper and pulp corporations and the landless peasants, indigenous commu- nities and other parties with alternative projects for the planet’s future are studied to illustrate how a great transformation can be built upon progressive counter-movements. This systematic comparison of several cases illustrates the broader principles and problems endemic to the global political economy. Contentious Agency and Natural Resource Politicswill be of strong interest to students and scholars of international relations, international political economy, environmental studies, environmental politics, sociology and social movement studies. Markus Kröger is an Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Political and Economic Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Rethinking Globalizations Edited by Barry K. Gills, University of Helsinki, Finland This series is designed to break new ground in the literature on globalization and its academic and popular understanding. 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Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orin anyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwriting fromthepublishers. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanation withoutintenttoinfringe. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Kröger,Markus. Contentiousagencyandnaturalresourcepolitics/MarkusKröger. p.cm.–(Rethinkingglobalizations;47) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. 1.Naturalresources–Politicalaspects.2.Landuse–Politicalaspects. 3.Politicalparticipation.4.Socialaction.I.Title. HC85.K762013 333.7–dc23 2012050444 ISBN:978-0-415-65967-3(hbk) ISBN:978-0-203-76673-6(ebk) TypesetinTimesNewRoman byTaylor&FrancisBooks Contents List of illustrations viii Acknowledgements x List of abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 1 Theory of contentious agency in natural resource politics 12 2 Accumulation by dispossession in resource exploitation frontiers: The case of industrial forestry in Brazil 36 3 Contentious agency, the Brazilian landless movement and pulp conflict outcomes 58 4 Political games determining resource exploitation pace and style 87 5 Key characters in contemporaryglobal expansion of resource exploitation, illustrated by conflicts over tree plantations 109 Conclusion: The role of resistance in natural resource politics 137 References 153 Index 169 Illustrations Figures I.1 Veracel’s eucalyptus plantations in cutting phase in Eunápolis, Bahia, Brazil, April 2011 9 1.1 The virtuous cycle of contentious agency promoting strategies 15 1.2 Economic outcomes as a result of political games 24 2.1 The correlation of state financing and pulp/eucalyptus plantation expansion per year in Brazil, 1996–2007 43 2.2 Veracel pulp mill from the inside, Eunápolis, July 2006. The bleached pulp is ready to be shipped to the world 44 2.3 Members of a Brazilian Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) camp in northeastern Rio de Janeiro, March 2004 50 2.4 Veracel’s outgrower eucalyptus plantation, Eunápolis, Bahia, Brazil, June 2004 53 3.1 La Vía Campesina Women’s Stora Enso plantation occupation, Santana do Livramento, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 8 March 2008 72 3.2 Steps of state embedding by a movement: the influence of movement embedding with the state apparatus on resource use 76 3.3 MSTcamp in PinheiroMachado, Rio Grande do Sul, May 2008. The MST is pushing for the expropriation of the surrounding land areas, whereas VCP, a pulp company, tried to buy the land for eucalyptus and to extend eucalyptus byoutgrowing schemes even within the nearby MSTsettlements 80 Tables 1.1 Processes, mechanisms and strategies in natural politics 31 2.1 Land access type, land price and dispossession in Brazil, 2006–10 45 2.2 Accumulation by dispossession, and signs of eucalyptus expansion-related dispossession in Brazil (yes or no), 2004–10 46 Illustrations ix 3.1 Contentious agency promoting strategies and plantation expansion in 13 pulp holding cases, 2004–08 82 5.1 Global “planted forest” expansion by regions, 1990–2010 113 5.2 Countries with over 800,000 ha of forestry plantations, % of introduced species, and conflict existence 125