This research examines the main causes of agrarian land invasions and conflicts in the Brazilian Amazon frontier, and how, in some cases, these conflicts can become related to uncontrolled deforestation. Some of the literature has mentioned that insecure property rights over land are possible causes of land conflicts12 and deforestation.13 After analyzing the data and evidence that I have collected from my field research, I show how land invasions are caused not only by insecure property rights over land, but also by abrupt social changes and insecure property rights over timber, which result from the insecurity over land rights and poor enforcement of environmental regulations. In the case of Buriticupu, Brazil, the problems of insecure property rights over land and over timber, under certain social conditions, give incentives to land invasions and then deforestation.
The paper also takes a different look at the most common explanations of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. The conventional wisdom in the literature generally assumes the process of deforestation and environmental degradation in the region are caused by independent private actors – construction companies, loggers, farmers, - stimulated by different government policies.