The topic of the conversion and modification of the earth’s mantle of trees impinges on the interests of many different geographers. Unfortunately, interest in what is essentially people/land relationships has, with few exceptions (Goudie, 1986; Sauer, 1938) not been too common in Geography, and while geographers have been engaged in other concerns in recent decades (quantification, perception, social relevance, to name but a few) workers in other disciplines, particularly biology, engineering and economics, have been beavering away diligently at a whole range of ’environmental’ relationships and problems. The topic of deforestation occasionally appears in geographical journals, but then usually as a part of historical change in past landscapes. But the clearing of the forests cannot be dismissed as a topic of antiquarian interest; it is one of the main processes whereby humankind has modified the world’s surface, and it is

Deforestation: past and present:

In this article, I look at the apparent contradiction of Paraguayan peasants who live on privately titled homesteads but who oppose the “privatization” of their land. The changes against which they are fighting are massive upheavals in the peasant landscape and subtle legal shifts that undermine the basis for land redistribution. I argue that the problem with privatizing the private reveals an underlying tension in liberal theories of property between a conception of a right as an abstract relation between people and one in which a right is a relation between people that is mediated, and troubled, by the frailty of material things. [Paraguay, property law, land reform, peasant movement, liberalism, privatization, agrarian transition]

Privatizing the private in rural Paraguay: Precarious lots and the materiality of rights

El Fondo de Poblacion de las Naciones Unidas (UNFPA) viene apoyando la investigacion y la divulgacion de sus resultados en un campo de enorme importancia para el Paraguay. Caracterizado por grandes desigualdades, la distribucion espacial de la poblacion ha sido objeto, por lo general, de analisis descriptivos que ponen de manifiesto el fenomeno, lo vinculan con movimientos migratorios internacionales e internos, especialmente la migracion rural-urbana, y presentan sus graves inconvenientes relativos a la precariedad de los servicios basicos, la falta de empleo y la creciente pobreza que se desplaza del campo a la ciudad.
Sin embargo, hasta poco menos de un ano atras, el enfoque geografico y territorial de esta aguda realidad sociodemografica del pais, practicamente no habia sido abordado. La demografia de las migraciones y de
sus causas y efectos, en terminos de distribucion geografica, no habia logrado sintonizar hasta entonces con la geografia de los procesos sociales, economicos y humanos, de modo a amplificar el escenario donde, posiblemente, se deban buscar las causas del problema y, aun mas, los cursos de accion para superarlas.
Durante 2006, el UNFPA ha prestado asistencia tecnica a importantes investigaciones sobre los procesos territoriales y sus vinculaciones con la dinamica de la poblacion. Fue ese un ano de intensa incursion en lo
que se presenta como un campo innovador de la sociodemografia paraguaya y, en el curso de ese proceso, se hizo visible un estudio de tesis que habia sido desarrollado, a profundidad, por el investigador frances
Sylvain Souchaud, cuya publicacion, en idioma frances, era casi desconocida en el Paraguay.
Surgio asi la idea de presentar ese trabajo en version espanola y para ello se ha contado con el respaldo decidido de su autor, la autorizacion indispensable de la Editorial Karthala, responsable de la edicion francesa, y la coordinacion tecnica, que incluyo la traduccion y adaptacion, de la Asociacion Paraguaya de Estudios de Poblacion (ADEPO), merced a la cual se obtuvo, ademas, la contribucion de la Embajada de Francia en el Paraguay para acompanar esta iniciativa.

Geografía de la migración brasileña en Paraguay

The knowledge claims of sustainable commodity discourses are often presented as ‘fact’ in policy debates. Such claims, however, are better understood as coproduced with neoliberal values and power, in the context of ‘more soy on fewer farms’ – the concentration of land and productive resources – in Paraguay. I analyze five claims that link ‘responsible soy’ to reduced deforestation, good agricultural practices, national economic growth, increased food security and public participation in soy governance. I examine ways in which each of these claims is contingent and contested. With an explicit commitment to equity, I argue that alternatives to ‘responsible soy’, that include rather than exclude small-scale producers in Paraguay's agricultural development trajectory, are likely to culminate in stronger claims to sustainability by redressing the equity issues that have been marginalized by neoliberal agriculture.

‘More soy on fewer farms’ in Paraguay: challenging neoliberal agriculture's claims to sustainability

The Transition to Democracy

Despite the fact that rural ownership and tenure relationships were very unfavourable to the majority when President Stroessner came to power, there was little or no peasant rebellion during his regime, and the rural masses were unable to force the government to improve their situation. This paper explains the lack of resistance by the rural poor in terms of the effectiveness of the repressive regime, which kept the poor quiet and either eliminated or discouraged capable young leaders who might have organized a defence of the rights of the rural population. Agricultural colonization has also served as a safety valve, reducing the tensions among the rural poor which might otherwise have led to more radical reforms that would have been against the interests of the landowning elite. A further explanation of the weak resistance is to be found in the lack of unity among the rural poor. Opposed interests have thwarted their adequate organization and the appearance of large and successful rural social movements. The paper begins by providing some historical background.

Elites, the Rural Masses and Land in Paraguay: The Subordination of the Rural Masses to the Ruling Class

Internal colonisation as a policy instrument for changing a country's rural system: the example of paraguay

Farm size, land tenure and rural prosperity: effects of rural development policy on the struggle for land in Central Paraguay.

Se estudian los problemas crecientes de la degradacion ecologica en el conjunto del tercer mundo y, en especial, de America latina. El caso de Paraguay es significativo, a pesar de tratarse de un pais de campesinos y de ser minima la actividad industrial.

E. B. Zoomers

Papers

Elites, the Rural Masses and Land in Paraguay: The Subordination of the Rural Masses to the Ruling Class

Internal colonisation as a policy instrument for changing a country's rural system: the example of paraguay

Farm size, land tenure and rural prosperity: effects of rural development policy on the struggle for land in Central Paraguay.

Degradacion ambiental en america latina : el caso de paraguay

Environmental degradation in latin america: the example of paraguay