Agrarian Reform and the Environment: Fostering Ecological Citizenship in Mato Grosso, Brazil

The role of ecological land reform in fostering ecological citizenship and community environmental-resource-management in Brazil is examined through a case study of settlement practices of Brazil's Landless Workers' Movement between 2000 and 2005. The case study explores the opportunities that ecologically oriented land reform may provide for the exercise of ecological citizenship and the production of more sustainable socio-environmental outcomes. Settlers engaged in individual and collective action on the use and protection of their ecological resources in making a transition to agro-ecological production, and in the protection of community forest and river reserves within the settlement.