SOCIOTERRITORIAL DYNAMICS AND THE FORMATION OF JUARA IN THE MATO GROSSO AMAZON: COLONIZATION, AGRICULTURAL FRONTIER EXPANSION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

Abstract

This study analyzes the process of territorial formation of Juara in the Mato Grosso Amazon, examining its political and socio-environmental foundations, as well as the contradictions inherent to the established capitalist project. The research demonstrates that the municipality’s origin resulted from migratory dynamics induced by state-led integrationist policies which, articulated with private colonization enterprises, promoted land commodification, the expansion of the agricultural frontier, and the socioeconomic incorporation of the territory. This process led to economic growth grounded in forest suppression and exploitation, as well as in the degradation of existing ecosystems, highlighting the appropriation of natural resources in the Brazilian Amazon. It also generated conflicts involving Indigenous peoples inhabiting the region, who were subjected to processes of deterritorialization and institutionalized violence. By historically reconstructing these dynamics, the study demonstrates how development was structured through asymmetric power relations and economic strategies that deepened social inequalities and ecological degradation. It concludes that a critical understanding of this trajectory is essential to support alternative models of territorial governance guided by socio-environmental justice, the recognition of pre-existing traditional territorialities, and the imperative of biodiversity conservation.