REVISIÓN DE INVESTIGACIONES APLICADAS SOBRE LA TEMÁTICA

Above I argued that the degree of territorial integration accounts for differences in cumulative deforestation. Until this point, I have focused on forms of STR that are

associated with the developmental agendas of the state in order to highlight the fact that the state tends to be embedded in the establishment of agricultural settlements. The idea of state embeddedness in agrarian colonization helps us understand why there is usually a strong connection between territorial integration and cleared land. The transformation of the landscape known as deforestation is the end result of agrarian colonization, which is typically induced by the promise of ceding public lands (baldíos) to investors and landless peasants. Densely forested areas like the Amazon tend to be brown zones because the social conditions that favor both STR and deforestation are not present. The economic and political integration of the Amazon began in the late nineteenth century with the rubber boom (Uribe, 2017) and markedly accelerated during the developmental era of the mid-twentieth century (Marsh, 1983) when the state became deeply invested in promoting agrarian colonization and configuring a proper internal market (Boone, 2012).

Thus, political integration via developmental strategies is the primary explanation for the negative relationship between STR and forest cover.

This picture was fairly simple until the early 1980s. Once the developmental era came to a close, however, not only did the relationship between state and market shift in favor of fuller marketization (Harvey, 2007), but Colombia also witnessed a

strengthening of the non-developmental i.e., ethnic and environmental agendas of the state (see Chapter 2). The empowerment of these disembedded agendas emerged in tandem with the implementation of neoliberal reforms. Put differently, two simultaneous transitions occurred at roughly the same time in the Amazon: the market gained a degree of autonomy from society (Polanyi, 2001) while the state began to broadcast power beyond the boundaries set by agrarian colonization. The transition from the

developmental to the neoliberal era, and the corresponding retrenchment of the state form the market, coincided with a diversification of state goals beyond pure developmentalism in the Amazon (Orihuela, 2019).

As Chapter 2 explained, the scope of state functions gradually changed as Colombia began to pursue non-developmental goals. Consequently, following the developmental era, new land-use planning institutions reserve forests, national parks, and indigenous reservations were recognized in the Amazon and have come to complement the classic institutions of private property and mining concessions (see Figure 3.6).92

92 _{Although the institution of indigenous reservations is not new, the recognition of indigenous titles in the} Amazon was uncommon prior to the mid-1970s.

Figure 3.6. Land-use planning institutions in the Colombian Amazon

Data for reserve forest, subtractions of reserve forest, natural parks and hydrocarbons from SIAC (2018), for Indian Reservation from the Ministry of Interior (2016) (coauthored with Nicolás Herrera).

As a result of these new agendas and land-use planning institutions, STR has become more diverse (Table 3.1). Since the early 1980s, densely forested areas of the Amazon have been undergoing an active process of territorial integration despite the fact that they have not undergone massive agrarian colonization.

Table 3.1

Sectoral Agendas of the State and State Reach in the Amazon over Time

Sectoral agenda Developmental era

(1950s-1970s)

Neoliberal era (1980s-) Agrarian Promiscuous Promiscuous Extractive Promiscuous Promiscuous Ethnic Formal Delegated Environmental Formal Focalized

In light of this transition and the diversification of state goals, the idea that deforestation results from different degrees of territorial integration and that densely forested areas tend to be brown zones should be further clarified. Despite the fact that new forms of territorial integration have now emerged as a result of the strengthening of the state’s non-developmental agendas, I nonetheless defend the idea that forested areas in the Colombian Amazon should be characterized as brown zones. When my typology of STR is taken into account (see Chapter 2), we see that non-developmental agendas tend to promote types of STR that are largely formal, delegated, or focalized. Penetrating forms of reach, which Mann (1986) described as “promiscuous,” tend to be embedded in the integration dynamics that favor deforestation. Drawing on traditional concepts and theories of the modern state, I argue that dense forests in the Amazon are brown zones because penetrating forms of state reach rarely occur in forested areas.

Chapter 2 characterized the different sectoral agendas of the state and their associated forms of STR. This chapter, by contrast, analyzes the theoretical association between those forms of reach and cumulative deforestation in the Colombian Amazon. Together, these two chapters enable us to understand why deforestation continued after

the 1980s, even as the amount of land that has been incorporated as a national park or an indigenous reservation has likewise increased.

In conclusion, I hypothesize that cumulative Amazon deforestation is the result of different degrees of territorial integration into the market economy and state project. Deforestation can be seen as a sign of territorial integration in the making. The dense forests of the Amazon tend to be brown zones because the very social conditions that favor both deforestation (in the short term) and STR (in the long term) are largely absent. At the same time, STR has diversified due to the empowerment of non-developmental agendas, which tend to be detached from agrarian colonization. The post-1980s

Colombian state reaches territories beyond the agricultural frontier, but these new forms of reach are less penetrating and tend to be formal, delegated, or focalized.