Normativity and Environmental Governance in 18th-Century Colonial Brazil: A Case Study of Land Tenure, Sugar Plantations, and the Atlantic Forest

This paper examines the role of legal institutions in mediating access to land and natural resources in 18th-century colonial Brazil. Before the emergence of the national state and the consolidation of individual property, dominium, servitudes, and easements played a crucial role in accommodating diverse rights over the same land and promoting agricultural activities. Real rights, rather than being solely private, encompassed collective access to water, mills, and common lands, firewood collection, and sharecropping. Whether rooted in legal arrangements or immemorial customs, these practices illustrate how real rights were embedded in communal traditions, guided by notions of public utility and the common good, serving the Kingdom's interests and the local community's subsistence. As the 18th century progressed, concepts like eminent domain and sovereignty gained prominence, and the control over vacant land and natural resources shifted decisively to the centralized state, resulting in profound changes in how societies perceived human-environment interactions. Focusing on this historical context, this paper analyzes juridical conflicts over natural resources from a legal perspective in a region that encompass sugar plantations and Atlantic Forest. It specifically addresses the shift from a governance model reliant on real rights and common good to one emphasizing a stricter division between private and public rights. Within the sugar rural economy, access to wood emerges as a critical factor influencing land rights. By the late 18th century, the extensive use of wood raised environmental concerns, prompting the Portuguese Crown to establish the office of the 'judge for the conservation of the forests.' This institutional development reflects the changing legal landscape on the governance of forests. The paper delves into background of these regulatory changes, exploring how legal instruments mediated access to wood within the sugar economy and illustrating broader transformations in environmental governance during this transitional period.