THE GEOGRAPHICAL DEFINITION OF MATOPIBA AND ITS CHALLENGES FOR THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION OF THE CERRADO BIOME

Abstract

This work aims to present the historical process involving the territorial delimitation of MATOPIBA
(intersection between the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia), in the context of the
agricultural expansion in the Cerrado biome, based on the theoretical-methodological assumptions
of environmental history. The research sought to identify the Cerrado in the historical context of the
demographic and agricultural expansion of Central Brazil from the second half of the 20th century.
Among the analyzed documentation we highlight the reports produced by the Embrapa, that helped

1 O artigo é resultado de parte da pesquisa da tese de doutorado intitulada “Dos cerrados ao Cerrado: Uma história ambiental
do desenvolvimento agropecuário da savana tropical brasileira (1975-2017)”, defendida e aprovada no dia 28 de maio de
2020 pela, agora doutora, Kárita de Jesus Boaventura, sob orientação do professor doutor Sandro Dutra e Silva. Essa
pesquisa teve o financiamento da Universidade Estadual de Goiás (UEG).
us to build a historical picture on the role of agriculture in the conquest and territorial insertion of
MATOPIBA and the challenges for understanding and delimiting this territory. The results indicate
that the projects for the conquest of the agricultural frontier in MATOPIBA are explained within a
process of modernization of agriculture and the expansion of the frontier in the Cerrado, and its
geographical reality is an even more recent phenomenon and full of challenges for environmental
history.