The agricultural boundary expansion is the main deforestation cause in Brazil and studying the farmers’ perception is fundamental to understand such process. This environmental history research is limited to Engenheiro Beltrão City, located in Paraná, from 1984, which was the beginning of the guided colonization, to 1970. It was used the oral history methodology, by the elaboration of 37 interviews. The main objective is to understand how the farmers have appropriated the forest and represented themselves to it.
deforestation; representation; appropriation; farmers