Posse, território e regularização fundiária na região geográfica imediata de Redenção Estado do Pará

Abstract

This study investigates the determining factors behind the implementation of land regularization policies in the area now corresponding to the Immediate Geographic Region of Redenção, in the state of Pará, Brazil. The central question is whether land regularization ensures rights for land occupants or for capital. To address this, a critical literature review is conducted under the lens of Éric Millardi’s legal realism, focusing on the dogmatics of Brazilian Agrarian Law, in which agrarian possession is the central analytical paradigm. The study also includes an analysis of the main possession theories present in legislation and legal doctrine, highlighting the enduring colonial perspective of the possession/property binary. The research further involves the collection and analysis of data on demographic variation, the expansion of agricultural exploitation areas, the evolution of private property mapping, fluctuations in cattle prices, and the agricultural GDP during the formation period of private land tenure in the region. In addition, all relevant legal norms are surveyed and examined, from the Land Law to the consolidation of private property as the dominant territorial model. The findings show the complete ineffectiveness of land regularization norms until the arrival of intensive cattle ranching geared toward export, transforming land into a commodity. Land regularization takes place at the point where the pioneering frontier overlaps with the presence of land occupants—those on the expansion front and those beyond the frontier. The study concludes that land regularization legitimizes business transactions, not rights. It is thus asserted that land regularization plays a strategic and instrumental role in consolidating private property as the legal and territorial foundation for capital expansion by providing legal security for the globalization of agricultural production chains.