The symbolic and political appropriation of scales: A critical analysis of the Amazonian ranchers’ narrative

► This study analyzes discourses that delegitimize environmental issues in the Amazon. ► It shows how scale is being mobilized within struggles around the environment. ► Large-scale landowners claim they are local developers to delegitimize other actors. ► This paper demonstrates that their strategies are rooted in non-local levels. ► We demonstrate the efficiency of this well-conceived and publicized scalar scenarios. There are many examples of “local” discourses aiming to delegitimize environmental issues, demands, actions and governance by arguing that they pursue international goals, defined by international actors that do not meet local needs and frequently oppose them. We focus on the narrative held by large ranchers in the Eastern Amazon, which disqualifies the so-called top-down creation of protected areas that jeopardizes the “local development” these actors have, following the narrative, encouraged and sustained for years. Through the combination of an ontological and constructivist approach of scales, our contribution challenges this scalar construction questioning the “locality” of the large ranchers and showing that their role as “local developers” is actually rooted in regional/national/international scales. We then study the most important effect of the anti-environmental grand scalar narrative: its influence on regional and national decision makers. Well-conceived and publicized scalar scenarios are efficient in this context as in many others.