Ghosts in the Forest: The Moral Ecology of Environmental Governance Toward Poor Farmers in the Brazilian and US Atlantic Forests

Abstract

A comparative approach is used to evaluate the social implications of environmental policy toward poor rural folk in the Atlantic Forests of Brazil and the United States. The objective is to question who benefits from the conservation units of the Appalachians in the United States and the Coastal Mountains in Brazil. Parallel complex processes are identified in biomes with similar past experiences. Initial European colonization occurred in both countries at roughly the same time. Commodity production was undertaken on the coastal plains and highland areas became refuges for poor farmers. During the twentieth century conservation units were set up in mountainous areas and nature enclosures removed the rural poor from the land and replaced them with regenerated forests consumed by middle- and upper-class urban people.