INNOVATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON LAW, STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, AND SOCIETY IN MATOPIBA: AN EPISTEMIC-TRANSGRESSIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

This article critically analyzes the expansion of agribusiness in the Matopiba region—comprising the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia—through an approach grounded in dialectical historical materialism and an epistemic-transgressive perspective of Law and strategic environmental management. It is based on the premise that the hegemonic development model, guided by the logic of capital accumulation, land financialization, and the intensive exploitation of natural resources, promotes a territorial reconfiguration marked by profound socio-environmental asymmetries. In this context, the study investigates how the expansion of monocultures, associated with the intensive use of pesticides and land concentration, triggers processes of forced deterritorialization of traditional communities, Indigenous peoples, and peasants, resulting in systematic violations of fundamental rights, such as the rights to land, health, cultural identity, and human dignity. The research adopts a qualitative and descriptive approach, developed through an interdisciplinary bibliographical essay, articulating contributions from Environmental Law, critical geography, and political ecology. Furthermore, it examines the ambivalent role of the State, which, while constitutionally bound to ensure socio-environmental protection, also operates—through normative instruments such as Decree No. 8,447/2015—to legitimize expropriatory practices and consolidate an exclusionary development model. The findings reveal that Matopiba constitutes a space of intense agrarian and cosmological conflicts, where distinct rationalities of territorial use and meaning are in dispute. It is concluded that overcoming this scenario requires a paradigmatic shift in the legal and institutional framework, incorporating participatory governance mechanisms, valuing traditional knowledge, and strengthening counter-hegemonic practices capable of promoting reterritorialization and the realization of substantive socio-environmental justice.