A look towards strengthening and expanding the socio-environmental debate in Brazil. With this objective, a group of civil society organizations has moved to create a tool that gathers data on conflicts in the countryside, deforestation, and the expansion of industrial agriculture in Brazil.
The Platform was created as an initiative of the Socio-environmental Observatory (OSA).This initiative addresses the urgent need to produce, analyze, and give visibility to the social impacts related to human rights violations in rural areas, generated by the expansion of commodities in the country. It is a partnership between the Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN), the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), WWF-Brazil, Fern, Imaflora, ICV, Aid Environment, Global Canopy, Trase, and the MATOPIBA Observatory, with consulting services from Diversa Socioambiental.
See here The Socio-environmental Platform.
The launch took place on April 27th at the headquarters of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), along with the Report on Conflicts in Brazil (2025). The tool compiles data from 2002 to 2023, including data from the Pastoral Land Commission, which made available its historical series of information on the reality in the countryside.
Originality and Interactivity on the Platform
The Platform is the main instrument of the Socio-environmental Observatory, gathering and cross-referencing data from different sources in an interactive environment that allows visualization of the reality throughout the country, states, and municipalities. It also offers analyses based on conflict records, environmental impacts, production, climate risk, land tenure categories, slave labor, and violence against people, thus qualifying socio-environmental analyses in the face of diverse scenarios. The tool allows visualization of a reality marked by the advance of agricultural frontiers and the pressure on territories and their natural resources.
The analyses can be used as a basis for formulating public policies and by the justice system in making decisions about the territory and guaranteeing other rights of communities living in rural areas. It is also an instrument that helps to push for greater transparency and accountability in Brazilian production chains.
"This work by the Platform is not limited to quantifying conflicts, but also tracks their transformations over time, identifying the different actors involved, their strategies, and the impacts on the affected populations. It is an important tool for understanding territorial dynamics, conflicts, and for defending human rights in rural Brazil."" says Ronilson Costa, one of the coordinators of the National Executive of the Pastoral Land Commission.
Data on violence in rural areas
The information contained in the Socio-environmental Platform reveals contradictions in a country rich in diverse biomes and the different knowledge of indigenous peoples and traditional communities who interact with nature. Brazil presents itself as a major global agricultural power, but it breaks records for violence in the countryside. In 2023 alone, more than 2,2 cases were registered, the highest number since the beginning of the historical series of the Pastoral Land Commission, affecting almost one million people. More than 78% of the registered cases are linked to the struggle for territory, frequently accompanied by attacks against indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, and rural workers, violating the right to life and territory.
Over the past ten years, 18.832 cases of conflict in rural areas and 374 murders have been recorded. Between 2002 and 2023, there were a total of 89.537 cases. The states of Maranhão, Pará, Bahia, and Rondônia recorded the highest numbers of occurrences in the last three years.
According to data from the CPT's 2025 Conflict Report, Maranhão has the highest number of cases of violence in rural areas for the second consecutive year. Last year, 209 cases were recorded.
The Brazilian Cerrado and the expansion of conflicts in the countryside.
The Cerrado, known as the heart of Brazil's watersThe region has been suffering due to agribusiness. The production of commodities aimed at supplying the external market has been transforming the world's most biodiverse savanna into a sacrifice zone. The data can be analyzed and cross-referenced on the Socio-environmental Platform, especially when studying the reality in the Matopiba region, formed by the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia.
According to an article published in the special launch edition of the Conflicts Notebook of the Pastoral Land Commission (2025), researchers and popular lawyers Maurício Correia and Juliana Borges show that the region is configured as a modern center for commodity production and, as a consequence, a scenario where racism, violence against indigenous peoples, traditional communities and family farmers, as well as land grabbing and severe environmental devastation are growing.
"The land grabber came after us. They burned our house and our cassava field. They planted grass instead.
The words are from Raimundo Luís Vieira, a family farmer who lives in the village of Gado Bravinho, in southern Maranhão, a region within Matopiba, where communities and the Cerrado biome are under pressure from the monoculture of soy and other grains. Raimundo and his wife had to leave their home and fields to avoid losing their lives. The threats came with armed land grabbers who expelled him and his family from the place where they had lived for over 40 years.
The numbers reflect the reality of Brazil's vast agricultural frontier, which experienced significant expansion in the early 2000s, a period considered a landmark in the production of agricultural and mineral commodities. In two decades, the deforested area in MATOPIBA was greater than the entire area converted between 1500 and 2000. Data from INPE/Prodes in 2024 show that 86% of deforestation in the Cerrado occurred in the Matopiba region.
“We need our territories to be titled. It is a right of our communities. And we continue fighting for our land, with great effort.”"Says a young leader who is in the Witness Protection Program and who was present at the launch event of the CPT's Platform and Conflict Notebook."
The right to water: The reality of access to water resources.
Water resources are also at the heart of the conflicts. Between 2016 and 2025, there was a recorded increase in water-related conflicts, involving dam breaks and contamination of rivers that supply communities, mining, and oil spills. What was once freely accessible and a common good for all who live in the territory has become the subject of a struggle to defend the demarcation of traditional lands and the protection of water sources. In the last ten years, 2.754 water conflict incidents were recorded (data from the Conflict Report). In 2025 alone, there were 148 cases.
Rosilda de Jesus Pereira, a young quilombola woman born in the Vale do Rio Peixe Bravo, in Minas Gerais, is part of the movement fighting for communities affected by mining and water contamination. The community, composed of several families, values its ancestral way of life, the Cerrado biome, and autonomy over its territory.
"Among our struggles are the pursuit of recognition, the preservation of the Peixe Bravo River, and the strengthening of our ancestral rights," Rosilda emphasizes.
Presentation of the Platform at the European Union Headquarters
As part of an international outreach strategy, the Socio-environmental Platform was presented at the European Union (EU) headquarters in Brasília. The presentation highlighted that the data strengthens the evidence of human rights violations and their link to commodity production and export, as well as deforestation.
The meeting was chaired by the EU Advisor for Climate, Energy, Environment and Health, Laurent Javaudin. Diplomats from member states and organizations such as ISPN, the Pastoral Land Commission, WWF, Trase, and Diversa Socioambiental were present.
"In the Brazilian countryside, there is a rise in violence in territories occupied for centuries by indigenous peoples and traditional communities, leading to escalating conflicts and increased violence in rural areas." stated Simone Madalosso, technical advisor at ISPN.
European Union Anti-Deforestation Law - EUDR
The Socio-environmental Platform is also an instrument that contributes to the fight for the applicability of the European Union's anti-deforestation regulation (EUDR – European Union Deforestation Regulation). The regulation was created with the objective of prohibiting the import and sale in the European market of products associated with deforestation and land conversion. Approved in June 2023, its practical application has been systematically delayed. The regulation covers the 7 main commodities and their derivatives: beef, soy, coffee, cocoa, timber, rubber, and palm oil.
“The data from the Socio-environmental Platform can help private companies that import from Brazil to identify high-risk and conflict areas, as well as the origin of commodities, in addition to supporting organizations in their due diligence regarding areas where there are records of human rights violations in Brazil. With this information, no one can say they didn't see it.” stated the consultant at Diversa Socioambiental, Gabriela Russo Lopes.
By law, only products originating from non-deforested or converted areas and in compliance with the laws of the country of origin can enter European Union countries. This legislation has an impact on Brazil because it forces Brazilian agribusiness to adapt its supply chains to guarantee full traceability, demonstrating that its products, especially soy, coffee, and meat, do not come from illegally deforested areas. Non-compliance will prevent the product from being sold in the European bloc, which is one of Brazil's main trading partners.
"The Socio-environmental Platform provides society, decision-makers, and companies with information on land and water conflicts and slave labor related to commodity production, which are putting pressure on traditional communities in Brazil. Disseminating the information contained on this platform is crucial so that we can develop public policies that consider these issues and achieve greater social control over these matters."This is what Isabel Figueiredo, coordinator of the Cerrado Program at the Institute for Society, Population and Nature - ISPN," says.
