Terra e política : etnografia da luta antibarragem de indígenas e agricultores contra Pequenas Centrais Hidrelétricas da bacia do rio Branco (RO)

Abstract

The hydroelectric projects in Brazil are marked by an assumption of progress and national development that runs simultaneously with a territorial expansion of areas destinated to many economic activities such as agriculture, livestock and mineral extraction. In many biomes and watersheds we have recent clashes between the expansionist developmental logic with the environmental issues and the traditional peoples. In this context that Small Hydroelectric Power Plants (SHP) from the rio Branco basin (RO), which since 1993 continue multiplying along that river. Because these are smaller projects – dams that generates below than 30MW – they don‘t need a study of environmental impacts and so, the impacted people remain vulnerable to impacts that were not formally predicted. This thesis takes as it‘s starting point the process of bulding these hydroeletrics projects and their impacts on the region‘s population. It aims to describe about the process of clashes and struggle by the indigenous people and small farmers, as well their perspectives to the changes that occured from the construction of the dams. The research took place in diferentes etnographic places: i) reading the legal process in the Ministério Público Federal ii) with the indigenous people, in the Terra Indigena Rio Branco; and iii) with the farmers, most of them, linked to the Movimento dos Pequenos Agricultores (MPA); and in so many other intersections in my path research.