The characteristics of the private appropriation of lands of public domain in Brazil pos 1850 are the root of the current environmental problems in rural areas. Ever since, the absence of environmental boundaries has been the main rule for the links between land concentration and technical progress in agriculture, jeopardizing other ways of access and then use of lands and their natural resources. We analyze the case of the Southeast region in the State of Paraná, Brazil. This study suggests that despite of having a more democratic agrarian structure than Brazil as a whole, the Southeast of Paraná yet presents social and economical vulnerability and increasing levels of environmental risks as new cases of soil erosion are registered. This is due to the fact that the reproduction strategies of family agriculture are closely associated with the imperatives of the grain export market.
Agrarian problem; Natural resources; Public domain; Southeast of Paraná
