Name: LUCAS DE MELO GOMES
Publication date: 24/04/2026
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| CARLOS TEIXEIRA DE CAMPOS JUNIOR | Examinador Interno |
| CASSIO ARRUDA BOECHAT | Presidente |
| FÁBIO TEIXEIRA PITTA | Examinador Externo |
| GUSTAVO MOURA DE CAVALCANTI MELLO | Examinador Interno |
Summary: This research presents a historical and critical analysis of the development of the pulp and
paper sector in Brazil, linking it to broader processes of modernization, state action, and the
financialization of the economy. The study begins in the late 19th century, a period interpreted
through the concept of the autonomization of land, labor, and capital, showing how these
spheres came to operate and shape new social relations across the territory. In this context, the
Land Law, coronelismo (local bossism), and the regional organization of power are examined
as key elements in the territorialization of state actions and capital. Next, the period after 1930
is marked by national integration, characterized by the political centralization promoted by the
Vargas government, the weakening of regional oligarchies, and the expansion of the State’s
role in economic planning. Science, technology, and public policies then became central
drivers of agricultural and industrial modernization in Brazil. Forestry emerged as a strategic
policy, initially linked to railway and energy demands and later to the steel and pulp and paper
industries. Forest legislation and state incentives consolidated the concept of “planted
forests,” encouraging the sector’s expansion and reshaping land use and territorial
management. In the postwar period, heavy industrialization accelerated, and the pulp and
paper sector came to be seen as strategic to the national development project. The sector’s
expansion, public financing, and the coordination between the State and private capital
reshaped the country’s productive structure. This process became territorialized in the state of
Espírito Santo, which was integrated into the international division of labor and diversified its
productive structure through the implementation of so-called “large-scale projects.” In this
context, processes of land expropriation, rights violations, and socio-environmental conflicts
became prominent, especially with the expansion of the pulp and paper industry in the state.
Finally, the study discusses the rise of green finance as a result of transformations in capitalist
reproduction, examining the relationship between sustainable development, financial
instruments, and forms of nature “assetization.” The critical analysis highlights the limits of
state regulation and the persistence of socio-environmental conflicts in the areas studied,
pointing to tensions surrounding financialized environmental policies, as well as the financial
and corporate strategies that restructured the sector in the final decades of the 20th century.
