Sustainability and Land tenure: Who owns the floodplain in the Pantanal, Brazil?

A more nuanced, interdisciplinary approach to land tenure is essential for balancing sustainability and local wellbeing in the Pantanal floodplain. Traditional policies focusing solely on granting land titles often exacerbate conflicts by ignoring complex, overlapping systems of resource use and property rights. This study reveals that government interventions, rooted in Western legal frameworks, have failed to address the nuanced realities of land ownership and access in the Pantanal, leading to prolonged disputes without tangible benefits for local communities or environmental conservation. By integrating economics, ecology, and anthropology—concepts such as bundle of rights, de facto and de jure resource use, and non-equilibrium theory—the research demonstrates how a holistic perspective can resolve contested claims more effectively, fostering both poverty alleviation and biodiversity protection.

Chiaravalloti, R. M., Homewood, K., & Erikson, K. (2017). Sustainability and Land tenure: Who owns the floodplain in the Pantanal, Brazil? Land Use Policy, 64, 511–524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.03.005