Indicators of socio-economic and environmental sustainability of agrarian reform settlements in Minas Gerais – Brazil

Rural development, in the perspective of socio-environmental sustainability, aims to stimulate the processes of territorial planning through attributes, such as the natural environment, the economy and the social characteristics. From this perspective, this article aims to analyse the indicators of socio-economic and environmental sustainability of 1034 rural lots in settlements of agrarian reform by the federal government, in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The methodology of the Sustainability Barometer is used, a tool that combines indicators of dimensions related to the welfare of the environment and human well-being. The results show that the environmental dimension is potentially sustainable, due to the low index of existing degraded areas. The socio-economic dimension presents itself as potentially unsustainable, considering the low schooling of the settlers and the need to complement the income outside the lot. The conception of sustainable development emphasizes the complementarity of the processes through which rural settlements pass through, where multiple dimensions should occur in synergy. However, the results show the main problems experienced by the researched population and enables, through analysis, the visualization of the main interactions between people and the ecosystem and can provide elements for the definition of priority actions and public policy development.