Conflicts and Tensions in Accessing Land-Water Resources

Abstract

Disputes over access to natural resources have always been followed by tensions and conflicts between the agents involved. In the Amazon Region, this is accompanied by violent acts, often using the police force legitimized by the State. It is a fact that infrastructural endowment policies (large-scale enterprises) always consider native populations as territorial contingencies that must be addressed by governments. From the data collected by the Pastoral Land Commission for 2018, associated with thematic cartography, it was sought to specialize the typologies of environmental and socio-environmental conflicts and understand their relationship with access to land-water resources in two hydrographic regions (Itacaiunas and Tocantins) in the State of Para, considering the concepts of the types of conflicts for indigenous peoples, riverside dwellers, fishermen, and agrarian reform settlers. The use of cartography allowed to specialize and analyze three areas that concentrate such conflicts, here called conflict cells, being concentrated in the municipalities of Tucurui, Maraba/Bom Jesus do Tocantins, and Parauapebas/Canaa dos Carajas. These conflicts are the product of social/environmental/territorial relations between mining and livestock enterprises and a waterway implementation project, in contrast to traditional ways of life that seek to defend their spaces.