Suchergebnisse

O presente trabalho examina a participação comunitária no processo de avaliação do impacto ambiental em dois projetos de construção de barragens hidrelétri- cas no Estado de Minas Gerais, Brasil, no contexto da privatização do setor elétrico no país. Procura-se explicitar os efeitos e o modo como o apoio de um ambientalista, de segmentos progressistas da Igreja e de uma universidade contribuiu para a participação da população atingida, o que a levou a contestar os planos de construção de uma das barragens. Examina-se também como, em uma situação similar, tal processo não ocorreu. Os resultados sugerem que, sob determinadas condições, reformas institucionais anteriores podem facilitar o empoderamento (empowerment) das populações ameaçadas pelos projetos de construção de barragens, capacitando-as a influenciar os processos de decisão na área ambiental e energética.

This article examines the participation of Brazilian communities in the environmental impact assessment process of five hydroelectric dam projects in Minas Gerais State in the context of privatization of Brazil's electric sector. It focuses on how support of church, university, and environmental activists enabled dam-affected rural populations and their leaders to effectively contest dam plans. Popular rural mobilization and critiques of environmental impacts reports in public hearings by affected people and their allies, reinforced by support from urban political leaders, provided leverage needed by state environmental technocrats to vigorously enforce environmental regulations. Divergent project outcomes included private sponsor withdrawal of three projects and a relatively equitable resettlement agreement of another project. Findings suggest that under certain conditions, prior institutional reforms can facilitate the empowerment of affected people, enabling them to influence environmental decision making and energy policy.

A case study of the anti-dam movement in southern Brazil shows how particular local mobilizations are linked to national and global economics, politics, and social movements. In the early stages, the progressive church was the predominant influence and was largely responsible for framing the key issue as peasants' right to land, while left intellectuals contributed a class analytical frame. After 1988, the weakening of the regional power company ELETROSUL, the crisis of the Left after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the defeat of the agrarian reform movement, the rise of national and international ecology movements, and the anti-dam movement's need for a broader political and financial base all contributed to the adoption of a broadened and more pro-active land/energy/ecology frame and an alliance with international environmentalism.

A case study of the anti-dam movement in southern Brazil shows how particular local mobilizations are linked to national and global economics, politics, and social movements. In the early stages, the progressive church was the predominant influence and was largely responsible for framing the key issue as peasants' right to land, while left intellectuals contributed a class analytical frame. After 1988, the weakening of the regional power company ELETROSUL, the crisis of the Left after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the defeat of the agrarian reform movement, the rise of national and international ecology movements, and the anti-dam movement's need for a broader political and financial base all contributed to the adoption of a broadened and more pro-active land/energy/ecology frame and an alliance with international environmentalism. (Mobilization / FUB)

AbstractThis article analyses how the Brazilian Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (Movement of Dam-Affected People, MAB) has been represented in the press, in the context of networks of resistance to large hydroelectric dams in Latin America. We analyse how the press deploys linguistic-discursive resources in producing and constructing meaning and focus in its presentation of news about anti-dam protests. The study analyses print media reporting on anti-dam protests in Minas Gerais between 1998 and 2005, and shows how, at different moments and in different political contexts, representations of social protest have changed and newspaper reports have either ignored, criminalised or provided visibility to MAB in this region.