Colonial law helped build modern deforestation. Legal historian Dr. Mariana Dias Paes traces how nineteenth-century property law created mechanisms for land dispossession and environmental destruction in Brazil's Atlantic Forest. Her research connects that history to the Amazon and Congo rainforests, where colonial legal systems continue to shape land disputes, court decisions, Indigenous rights, and conservation. Rather than treating environmental law only as a solution, the episode examines how law helped create the conditions for rainforest loss and why those structures persisted after independence. This is an environmental history of private property, colonialism, and the legal architecture still influencing environmental policy, environmental justice, and forest conservation today.

Episode Guests: Dr. Mariana Dias Paes

Browse Dr. Dias Paes’ publications on Google Scholar

WATCH THE FULL VIDEO ON YOUTUBE

Explore the Pine Forest Media digital ecosystem on our website

Find the full-length video on YouTube @PineForestPods

Follow us on Social Media @pineforestmedia

Audio Editing by Clark Marchese, Video Editing by Madelyn Cho Weir

Videography and Set Design by Le Studio Du Passage

Cover Art by Laurel Wong

Theme music by Nela Ruiz

Find some more Pine Forest Media podcasts below

Listen to Oceanography on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Listen to Plastic Podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Listen to South Pole on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Listen to Something in the Water on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.