Third Lemann Dialogue Agricultural and Environmental Issues in Brazil November 7-8, 2013

1. Third Lemann Dialogue Agricultural and Environmental Issues in Brazil November 7-8, 2013 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Photo: Murilo Mello – Suape, 1975 Development and Socio- Environmental Conflicts: the Suape Project, Belo Monte, and the S. Francisco River Diversion Clóvis Cavalcanti clovati@fundaj.gov.br Clóvis Cavalcanti clovati@fundaj.gov.br

2. Introductory Remarks Ecological economics: analytical reference for the presentation. A transdisplinary field of study attracting systems ecologists and dissident economists. Inspiration in N. Georgescu-Roegen (1906-1994) together with work from, among others, ecologist H. T. Odum (1924-2002) and economist K. Boulding (1910-1993).   Ecological economics sees the economy as a subsystem of a larger finite global ecosystem.

3. What makes one believe that the extra ecological and social costs of growth are not already larger than the extra production benefits? Herman Daly’s suggestion:

4. The development process in Brazil has provoked a series of grave, well-known ecological problems: biodiversity loss with deforestation (subsidized cattle-raising) and large-scale agricultural projects; large dams built at any cost to produce subsidized electricity; desertification processes mainly in the Northeast, but even in Amazonia; ecosystem destruction such as in the case of mangroves; a lack of observance of environment protection laws and rules. The process of development has not taken fully into account its ecological and social costs. The traditional model of exploitation of natural resources in Brazil is extractivist, predatory and colonialist: high-energy content (and impact), low value added

5. As J. A. Drummond says, the economy of Brazil since the 1930s has been submitted to a process “amply dominated by the developmental belief that it is worth incurring any costs to grow economically”. Faith in the indispensability of growth can explain the waste of resources in Amazonia as if they had no limits, according to Mary Allegretti. It has also dominated the orientation of all administrations since 1930. Short-run considerations determine what is undertaken, especially in connection with economic decisions and their (neglected) socio-environmental consequences

6. Access to information of relevance in relation to big projects subject to environmental licencing  opportunity to adjust the interest of economic iniciatives to the needs of the protection of nature and people Experience shows that inadequate permissions are given The licencing process fails in its function of evaluation instrument of the social and ecological sustainability of great undertakings (the proper occasion to assess mega-projects’ full implications; an opportunity to apply the rules of good environmental governance) Concession of unjustified permits to projects assessed on the basis of insufficient data and reasonings which disrespect legal restrictions, and face strong movements of protest and resistance from affected populations

7. Perceptionof a hidden reality Joan Martínez Alier: “theresistance (local and global) expressed in manyidiomstothe abuse of natural environmentsandthelossoflivelihoods”  againstthebeliefthattodefendnatureis a “luxury” oftherich, typicalof a post-materialist age (ortheprejudicethat “The poor are too poortobegreen”). Socio-environmentalconflictsexpress a survivalstrategyofthepoor, who becomeawareofthenecessityto conserve natural resources, such as waterandtheforest. This “awarenessisoften hard toidentifybecause it does not use thelanguageofscientificecology, but local languagessuch as the territorial rightsofindigenouspeoplesorthereligiouslanguage” It comprisestheincommensurability, orweakcomparabilityofvalues, in front ofthemodernprimacyoftheeconomic over anyotherdimensionoflife valuesatstake, beyondtheeconomic, are: ecological, cultural, subsistenceofthepopulations, sacred, human

8. Photo: Murilo Mello Suape, 1975 A village of artisan fishermen Abundance of fishes, shellfish, crustaceans  ample mangrove area, great local fish nursery Small, organic subsistence farms (diversity of fruits: cashew, coconut, mangaba, cajá, mango, jackfruit, sirigüela, star-fruit, Malay apple, sapodilla, etc.) Communities existing there in some cases for over 200 years (case of the Tatuoca islet, now the site of shipyards)

9. Suape area, 1975 Suape (PE): Source of a reaction along the lines of the environmentalism of the poor The official, imposed perspective: “The search for adequate areas to build ports that live up to future requirements, unfortunately, does not find in our territory an ample range of alternatives […] The choicethusamountstoexploitnature’sgifts, moldingthemaccordingtoourneedsandawakeningthemtofruitfulactivity” Lafayette Prado, 1974. Complexo Portuário Industrial de Suape. Recife, 11/8/1974.

10. Suape port and industries 2005 photo

12. Questionsthatarise: environmental (in)justice, environmentalracism, ecologicaldistributiveconflicts, ecologicallyunequalexchange, ​​non-economicvalues problemsresultingfromthemonopolyoftheeconomicdimension over theother. “Who hasthepowertoimposetheeconomiclanguage as thesupremelanguage in a socio-environmentaldiscussion? Who hasthepowertosimplifycomplexity, disqualifyingother points ofview?” (Martínez Alier) Ecologicaldistributiveconflictsmanifesttheconfrontation in the social metabolismofnaturebetweennatureandtheeconomy, withupsanddowns, vicissitudes, new frontiers, urgenciesanduncertaintiesindicationofdirections for a truly – not a neoliberal – greeneconomy

13. The economic perspective over Suape– Francisco Cunha, a consultant (2012)“Suape isthecrownjewelof Pernambuco. A marveloflogistics. Savingsofthepeopleof Pernambuco done for over 30 yearswithoutinterruptionandattherightplace. As a collectivesavings, Suape confirmsthequipattributedto Albert Einstein that ‘thegreatest force in theuniverseiscompoundinterest.’ We are beginningtobenefitfromthecompoundingofapplicationsmade ​​in Suape[...][It] is agreatopportunityofdevelopment [...] thegreatest in thelast 50 yearsand for thenextgeneration.”

14. Government intervention through the Suape companhy has been characterized by violence in the removal of families living there, without fair compensation, and without new homes made available. Those families have become homeless, settling precariously in cities located around the project. The environment has also suffered from the predatory occupation of the territory. Where there were mangroves, rainforest and marshes big structures appear. At the same time, constituted powers (executive, legislative and judiciary) wink at the violation of the rights of those populations invisible to society.

15. Communities removed from their spaces, whose culture and habits, fostered by the tradition of fishing activities and the small family farms, gave meaning to their lives, face a kind of extinction. Believing in the official discourse, the general population expects Suape to be their redemption. In the case of communities forced to leave their land, whose possession comes from grandparents, and passes from parents to children, the strategy employed be the project is expulsion, with promises of new a place to live, as if this futuristic adventure could be free from suffering and erase from people’s minds all the vital energy used to build a life. This strategy is typical of a policy of modernization and development imposing new structures of production at all costs. In Pernambuco – andotherpartsofBrazilwith grave socio-environmentalconflicts –, whatisatstakeistheruleoflaw. Simply, theConstitutionisignored as much as possible DestroyedfarmhousesofsmalllandownersejectedviolentlyatTiriri (Suape) in 2012

16. BELO MONTE case6th Biennial Meeting of the Brazilian Association of Graduate and Research Programs on the Environment and Society (ANPPAS), Belém, Pará, Sept. 2012Discussion onConflicts in the Context of the Great Hydroeletric Dams in AmazoniaAfter hearing the young Indian Juma Xipaya, member of the panel, speak, I thought: “Syria is here”. There seems to be what people in Amazonia is calling PDA (Plano de Destruição da Amazônia) Juma Xipaya who breastfed her baby during the panel

17. New articulation of the peoples of the rivers where the government intends to implement large hydroelectric complexes – and, with them, violent works in the field of mining, deforestation and social chaos. • “Every problem interacts with other problems and is therefore part of a set of interrelated problems, a system of problems… I choose to call such a system a mess” – Russell L. Ackoff (1919-2009), systems thinker • The occupation movement in Belo Monte in May 2013 demanded the suspension of works, and studies of dams in their territories, requiring prior consultation – with veto power – to be performed. • The definitive Belo Monte license was granted without requiring the observance of the constraints established in the previous phase (preliminary license) – statement of the Public Office of the Prosecution in Oct. 2013. • Invasion of the building site by protesting indigenous peoples. Court of Appeals determined the expulsion of invaders and the works to go on (Oct. 31, 2013, after a week of occupation) • A continuous conflict between different valuation languages marches toward the victory of the economic perspective

18. Diversion of the São Francisco River • Canal digging • Photos: José AlvesSiqueira Life in the river Fotos: André Fossati

19. Social reality Photos: José Alves Siqueira

20. Environmental problems • Threatened species • (Araripe marakin, e.g.) • Extinction • (ararinha azul • de lear) • Desertification

21. “The inexorable end of the São Francisco”: the repetition of disastrous public policies in the river basin. Serious consequences of the construction of big works without efforts to minimize their impact along the river – José Alves Siqueira (2012)Today, in the traditional Fish Square in Petrolina (PE), just 700 m from the São Francisco left bank (the river had 158 different fish species), Amazon species from the state of Pará are among the most commercialized  disappearance of local onesFotos: André Fossati

22. “The [development] story starts with the ancient dream of utopia, and then mutates into the historical project of creating paradise on earth […] On the way, the idea of moral limits to human ambition, which underpinned all pre-modern conceptions of the good life, was lost and dormant energies of creativity and destructiveness were set free […] At various stages on this journey, the greatest thinkers of the age tried to envisage an end state, a point at which humanity could say ‘enough’, only to find that the machine it had created was out of control, a Frankenstein’s monster which now programmed the game of progress according to its own insane logic. This is the story of how it happened – how we came to be ensnared by the dream of progress without purpose, riches without end.” - Robert Skidelsky & Edward Skidelsky, How Much Is Enough? The Love of Money, and the Case for the Good Life (2012)

23. Thank you!