Land use, mining and territorial selectivity in Minas Gerais

Abstract

This article analyzes land-use transformations and the territorial expansion of mining in Minas Gerais, discussing their relationships with institutional dynamics and processes of territorial selectivity from a critical and multiscalar perspective. The analysis combines the debate on territory, scale, and state action with secondary data from MapBiomas and IDE-SISEMA. Data from MapBiomas Collection 9 are used to examine changes in land use and land cover between 1985 and 2023, while IDE-SISEMA data are used to characterize the current configuration of spatial records associated with active mining processes according to their different administrative stages. The results show that agriculture experienced the largest expansion among the analyzed classes, followed by silviculture, while mining expanded by more than 300%, although with a significantly smaller spatial extent. The IDE-SISEMA database comprises 48,621 spatial records associated with active mining processes, predominantly exploration authorizations, revealing an institutional dimension of mining territoriality that does not fully coincide with the surface area where mining has effectively materialized. The analysis suggests that the observed territorial transformations cannot be attributed to a single sector or decision-making center, but should be understood in relation to the interactions among economic agents, institutions, infrastructure, and different scales. Territorial selectivity is therefore employed as an interpretive framework for reflecting on the differentiated conditions through which distinct land uses and activities become territorialized in Minas Gerais.

Keywords: land use. Mining; territorial selectivity; Minas Gerais. regional development.