Conflitos pelo uso do território: camponeses e mineração no Estado do Pará

Abstract

Throughout the first decades of the 21st century, the advancement of mining and agribusiness has generated many transformations in the Amazon space, based on the uses by different subjects of the territory, according to their interests, reestablishing norms and regulation in these spaces. This statement guides the problem of this research, which seeks to analyze whether the insertion of large projects in the Amazon region, implemented by the initiative of industrial capital and the Brazilian State, are elements that fuel, in contemporary times, transformations in geographic space, with expropriation of the population local, generating a conflictive relationship between social groups, in addition to causing numerous direct impacts on the territories' ecosystems, due to pollution and environmental degradation. From this perspective, the general objective of this thesis is to investigate conflicts over the use of territory between mining and the peasantry in the State of Pará, in contemporary times, in Barcarena, Parauapebas and Canaã dos Carajás, generated by the activities of mining companies in the territory where the lives of peasants are reproduced, with the support and exercise of the federative State. This action is responsible for developments in sociospatial formation, in the mode of production and in place. In this thesis, the concept of totality, according to Santos (1997), is central to understanding the reality in question. Based on three definitions developed by Santos (1997), namely, geographic space, used territory and place, there is an inseparable triad, inseparable for the empirical analysis of Milton Santos' critical social theory. In this sense, the definition of geographic space, according to Santos (2014, 2021, 2023), consisting of forms (spaces of production, distribution, exchange, consumption, circulation) and contents (structures, processes and functions), it becomes essential for understanding and analyzing the territory used (2008, 2001), especially as a social instance formed by fixed assets and flows; spatial configurations and social dynamics; object systems and action systems. The methodological scope is based on bibliographical review, quantitative-qualitative research, with data collection and systematization of secondary sources, the latter carried out in bodies such as the National Mining Agency, National Department of Mineral Production (DNPM), Instituto Brasileiro de Meio Environment Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), Mineral Technology Center (CETEM), CFEM, Pastoral Land Commission (CPT). At the same time, the latest available data from the IBGE Agricultural Census were combined, enabling access to information on peasant agriculture. Equally important was the collection of information from the application of 243 questionnaires and 7 semistructured interviews with local residents. We sought to demonstrate, throughout this thesis, that the Brazilian State has contributed to the consolidation of mining enterprises through regulatory frameworks and public policies capable of ensuring the growth of mineral production in the country – the National Mining Plan 2030 and the new Mineral Code, are examples. Seeking to oppose the plans and projects created by the mining company for the region, rural communities defend the right to guarantee the reproduction of their families' livesin theirsheltered territory. It was also noticeable that the use of territory by mining companies in the Amazon represents the geopolitical interests of capital agents such as companies, banks and financing organizations that, in general, oppose the desires of local groups. The thesis states that, even with the idea of modernity, development and progress, reflected in the advancement of the Brazilian mineral model and in the investments of capital, the resistance of peasants makes it possible, through the appropriation of the fruits of labor, to carry out their social reproduction, to make their organizations and their strategies for permanence and survival conditions, confirming that the peasantry in the Amazon is redefining itself, despite all the difficulties, and continues to live in this region. Thus, peasants realize their social reproduction, focusing on land as a foundation, through family farming and the different forms of existence, resistance and survival in their territory.