Espaços de esperança? o papel político do Estado brasileiro sobre a reserva extrativista de Canavieiras e os conflitos territoriais e ambientais em seu entorno

Abstract

The extractive reserves reflect a power shift in the spatial organization of the conservation territory, based on the social conflict of rubber tappers. In fact, the transformation caused by the institutionalization of the first Brazilian forest RESEX1

produced a significant movement for Brazilian environmental policy, the creation of the National System of Nature Conservation Units – SNUC, Law 9,985/2000. The model created and demanded by extractive populations has expanded to different parts of the country, as well as to marine and coastal environments. Despite these achievements expressing how important the institutionalization of the RESEX territory was for the social struggle, especially for the populations of the traditional matrix, the Brazilian RESEX model directly clashes and at the same time contrasts the structure and organization of the Brazilian Territorial State. In Brazil, the land issue has never been resolved, as it produces very serious territorial conflicts that affect natural spaces. Nature has been constantly appropriated by private capital, since the rationality of the capitalist mode of production is based on the indiscriminate exploitation of nature's elements/resources. In the case of the marine RESEX, especially the RESEX of Canavieiras, Bahia, where this study is based, the conflict is established not only because different social groups establish different relationships over the same territory, that of the RESEX, but because the State is often omitted and corroborates with actions produced by private capital. Although the State has, as an obligation and as a principle, the duty to meet the needs and desires of all citizens without distinction, it is known that, in practice, it follows the structural logic of providing financial resources for hegemonic groups, in many cases, their business partners. In Brazil, this type of practice produced by the State is quite common in spaces of nature, which has generated tensions and territorial conflicts at the cost of the impoverishment of the poorest. Not different in the territory of the RESEX of Canavieiras, tension and conflicts are due to the expansion of shrimp farming, the presence of latifundia, the monoculture of eucalyptus, the incentives for industrial projects by the State and the overlapping of areas, that is, different types of conservation units occupying the same territory. These are conflicts that go against the objectives of a marine RESEX. Although the RESEX model is inert, as the territory is dynamic, the RESEX is indeed an important political space for extractive populations. The Brazilian State is increasingly

1 Acronym for extractive reserve

precarious for environmental public policies, but still maintains the centralization and regulation of power over conservation territories. Even though the State has relegated the environmental agenda and at all times disqualifies the social achievements of the populations of traditional matrix, the RESEX of Canavieiras remains in the vanguard, exercising utopia through the desire for autonomy, but without losing access to public policies produced by the Brazilian State. They are new ways of managing and organizing the territory, but they are also new ways of (re)existing and rethinking the RESEX model from the lens, the attentive and everyday look of its users. It is the freedom to organize the territory beyond the control and limits of the State. After all, only hope builds the strong.