Neoextrativismo, garimpo e vulnerabilização dos povos indígenas como expressão de um colonialismo persistente no Brasil / Neo-extractivism, mining, and vulnerability of indigenous peoples as an expression of persistent colonialism in Brazil

RESUMO O artigo, em forma de ensaio, defende que as ameaças de vulnerabilização mais recentes contra os povos indígenas, intensificadas no contexto da pandemia de Covid-19, refletem um colonialismo persistente. Este se atualiza no contexto da inserção semiperiférica do Brasil no sistema-mundo capitalista, neoliberal e globalizado como exportador de commodities produzidas pelos dois setores estratégicos do neoextrativismo, a mineração e o agronegócio. O modelo neoextrativista beneficia principalmente grupos transnacionais e elites nacionais com grande poder econômico e político, além do próprio setor financeiro. Além disso, estabelece conexões com o submundo dos circuitos inferiores e ilegais vinculados a setores como o garimpo, e incluem desde práticas de violência até a lavagem de dinheiro com a participação de grupos locais que, nos últimos tempos, vêm assumindo crescente poder político e institucional. Tais grupos fazem parte do complexo mosaico do fortalecimento de ideologias de extrema-direita nos últimos anos no cenário nacional, que vêm reunindo alianças. O artigo tem por base experiências de pesquisa colaborativa nos últimos anos com o povo Munduruku na região do Médio Tapajós, com reflexões sobre a atual expansão de agenda política anti-indígena.

ABSTRACT This essay argues that the most recent threats of vulnerability against indigenous peoples, intensified in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, reflect a persistent colonialism. This is updated in the context of Brazil's semi-peripheral insertion into the capitalist, neoliberal, and globalized world-system as an exporter of commodities produced by the two strategic sectors of neo-extractivism, mining and agribusiness. The neo-extractivist model benefits mainly transnational groups and national elites with great economic and political power, in addition to the financial sector. Moreover, it establishes connections with the underworld of inferior and illegal circuits linked to sectors such as mining, and ranges from practices of violence to money laundering with the participation of local groups that, in recent times, have been assuming growing political and institutional power. Such groups are part of the complex mosaic of the strengthening of far-right ideologies in recent years on the national scene, which have been gathering alliances. This essay is based on collaborative research experiences in recent years with the Munduruku people in the Middle Tapajós region, along with reflections on the current expansion of the anti-indigenous political agenda.

Rapidly assessing cobenefits to advance threat-management alliances.

Conservation strategies aimed at reducing threats to biodiversity can have significant implications for multiple sectors in a socioeconomic system, but these cobenefits are often poorly understood. For example, many of the threats to native species also impede agricultural production, yet agriculture is typically perceived as in competition with conservation objectives. Although a comprehensive, multiobjective decision analysis is usually beyond the scope and capacity of conservation decision makers, failing to incorporate key socioeconomic costs and benefits into conservation decision-making processes can result in missed opportunities for diversifying outcomes and creating cost-sharing multisectoral partnerships. We devised a straightforward and readily interpretable approach to incorporate cobenefits into a threat-management prioritization approach. We used it to analyze the agricultural cobenefits of implementing 9 invasive animal management strategies designed to ensure the persistence of 148 threatened species across Australia's Lake Eyre Basin over 50 years. A structured elicitation process with 24 participants (scientists, land managers, agriculturalists, and other stakeholders) was used to collect information on each strategy, including costs, technical and social feasibility, benefits to native threatened species, and cobenefits to agricultural production systems. The costs of targeted invasive animal management to save threatened species across the basin (AU$33 million/year) outweighed the overall benefits to the agricultural industry (estimated AU$226 million/year). The return on investment for these management strategies varied substantially when agricultural cobenefits were considered alongside threatened species benefits and showed synergies and challenges. Our approach demonstrates the value of incorporating cobenefits of conservation actions into cost-effectiveness analyses to guide potential investment and partnerships and to diversify implementation pathways.

Evaluación Rápida de los Cobeneficios para Promover Alianzas de Manejo de Amenazas Resumen Las estrategias de conservación enfocadas en la reducción de las amenazas para la biodiversidad pueden tener implicaciones importantes para muchos sectores de un sistema socioeconómico, pero existe un entendimiento reducido de estos cobeneficios. Por ejemplo, muchas de las amenazas para las especies nativas también impiden la producción agrícola y a pesar de esto, comúnmente se percibe a la agricultura como una competencia para los objetivos de conservación. Aunque un análisis completo de decisiones con objetivos múltiples está usualmente más allá del enfoque y la capacidad del órgano decisorio, no incluir costos y beneficios socioeconómicos importantes dentro del proceso de toma de decisiones puede resultar en oportunidades perdidas para la diversificación de resultados y la creación de colaboraciones multisectoriales con reparto de costes. Diseñamos una estrategia directa y de fácil interpretación para incorporar los cobeneficios dentro de una estrategia de priorización de manejo de amenazas. Usamos esta estrategia para analizar los cobeneficios agrícolas de la implementación de nueve estrategias de manejo de animales invasores diseñadas para asegurar la persistencia de 148 especies amenazadas en la cuenca del Lago Eyre en Australia durante 50 años. Usamos un proceso estructurado de extracción con 24 participantes (científicos, administradores de tierras, agricultores y otros actores) para recolectar información sobre cada estrategia, incluyendo los costos, viabilidad técnica y social, beneficios para las especies nativas amenazadas y los cobeneficios para los sistemas de producción agrícola. Los costos del manejo enfocado en animales invasores para salvar a las especies amenazadas de la cuenca (AU$33 millones al año) superaron a los beneficios generales para la industria agrícola (estimados en AU$226 millones al año). El rendimiento de la inversión para estas estrategias de manejo varió sustancialmente cuando los cobeneficios agrícolas estuvieron considerados junto con los beneficios para las especies amenazadas y mostró retos y sinergias. Nuestra estrategia demuestra la importancia de la incorporación de los cobeneficios de las acciones de conservación dentro de los análisis de rentabilidad para guiar la inversión potencial y las alianzas y para diversificar las vías de implementación.

Teorías económico-ambientales y su vínculo con la dimensión social de la sustentabilidad en Áreas Naturales Protegidas / Economic-environmental theories and their link with the social dimension of sustainability in Protected Natural Areas

RESUMEN Las Áreas Naturales Protegidas (ANP), son consideradas instrumentos para conservar la biodiversidad y alcanzar el desarrollo sustentable. No obstante, su establecimiento genera inconvenientes por la exclusión de los intereses y necesidades de las poblaciones (dimensión social), lo que impide lograr dicho desarrollo. El objetivo de este trabajo fue determinar cuál de las principales teorías económico-ambientales aborda la dimensión social del desarrollo sustentable, y por ende, problemáticas en ANP, que involucren a sus habitantes. Para ello, se realizó una revisión del estado del arte de las teorías: economía ambiental, economía de los recursos naturales, economía verde y economía ecológica, identificando los caracteres de cada una, su relación con la sustentabilidad y con las políticas que promueven, lo cual permitió advertir que, la economía ecológica es adecuada para abordar la inclusión del factor humano en las ANP, ya que contempla las perspectivas de las comunidades y escucha sus intereses y necesidades, respecto al aprovechamiento de recursos naturales.

ABSTRACT Protected Natural Areas (PNA) are considered instruments to conserve biodiversity and achieve sustainable development. However, its establishment generates inconveniences due to the exclusion of the interests and needs of the populations (social dimension), which hinders such development. The objective of this work was to determine which of the main economic-environmental theories addresses the social dimension of sustainable development and the refore, problems in PNA, which involve its inhabitants. For this, a review of the state of the art of the theories was carried out: environmental economics, natural resources economics, green economy and ecological economics, identifying the characters of each one, its relationship with sustainability and with the policies promoted by each of them. Our review indicates that the ecological economy theory is adequate to address the inclusion of the human factor in the PNA, since it considers the perspectives of the communities and listens to their interests and needs, regarding the use of natural resources.

How economics can further the success of ecological restoration.

Restoration scientists and practitioners have recently begun to include economic and social aspects in the design and investment decisions for restoration projects. With few exceptions, ecological restoration studies that include economics focus solely on evaluating costs of restoration projects. However, economic principles, tools, and instruments can be applied to a range of other factors that affect project success. We considered the relevance of applying economics to address 4 key challenges of ecological restoration: assessing social and economic benefits, estimating overall costs, project prioritization and selection, and long-term financing of restoration programs. We found it is uncommon to consider all types of benefits (such as nonmarket values) and costs (such as transaction costs) in restoration programs. Total benefit of a restoration project can be estimated using market prices and various nonmarket valuation techniques. Total cost of a project can be estimated using methods based on property or land-sale prices, such as hedonic pricing method and organizational surveys. Securing continuous (or long-term) funding is also vital to accomplishing restoration goals and can be achieved by establishing synergy with existing programs, public-private partnerships, and financing through taxation.

Valoração econômica dos benefícios ambientais percebidos pela população da bacia do Educandos provenientes do PROSAMIM / Economic valuation of environmental benefits perceived by the Educandos basin population proceeding from PROSAMIM

A poluição ambiental observada ao longo de anos nos igarapés de Manaus (Amazonas-Brasil), associado ao processo de degradação social da população que vive nessas áreas foi o que motivou a concepção do Programa Social e Ambiental dos Igarapés de Manaus PROSAMIM. O Programa busca a recuperação ambiental dos igarapés e a melhoria social das famílias que vivem em situação de risco nas margens. O objetivo principal da pesquisa consistiu em avaliar economicamente os benefícios ambientais percebidos pela população da bacia do Educandos provenientes do PROSAMIM, usando o Método de Valoração Contingente MVC para estimar a disposição a pagar das pessoas pela melhoria ambiental obtida. Foi estimado um tamanho de amostra correspondente a 1.070 questionários, levando em conta um erro de 3% e um nível de significância de 5%. Concluiu-se que a disposição a pagar mensal das pessoas é R$13,73 e o valor econômico total para a melhoria ambiental relativa à execução do PROSAMIM é R$ 46.325.074,92 por ano. Analisando a influência de variáveis socioeconômicas na probabilidade de aceitar pagar por benefícios ambientais foi observado que somente o nível de renda apresenta significância estatística e o coeficiente angular positivo da variável, indica que a probabilidade de aceitar pagar o valor sugerido é maior em pessoas que têm o nível de renda mais alto. Finalmente, pode ser concluído que as ações do PROSAMIM têm gerado melhorias significantes para a população da cidade de Manaus, tanto do ponto de vista social quanto ambiental.

The environmental pollution observed down through the years in the streams of Manaus, linked to the process of social degradation on the populations which live in these areas was the motive for conceiving PROSAMIM - Programa Social e Ambiental dos Igarapés de Manaus. The Program seeks the environmental recuperation of streams and the social improvement of families that live a risk situation on the stream banks. The main target of this research consists in the economical evaluation of environmental benefits perceived by the population in the Educandos basin proceeding from PROSAMIM, using the Contingent Valuation Method - CVM to estimate individual willingness to pay for the environmental improvement. We estimated a sample size corresponding to 1,070 questionnaires, taking into account an error of 3% and significance level of 5%. In accordance with the results obtained, we concluded that the people were willing to pay R$ 13.73 per month toward implementing the PROSAMIM, for an annual total of R$46,325,074.92 per year. Analyzing the influence of socioeconomic variables on the acceptance probability of paying for environmental benefits, we concluded that the probability was greater among those with a higher income. We also concluded that, the actions of PROSAMIM have generated significant improvements for the population of Manaus from the environmental as well as the social point of view.

Concepções da economia ecológica: suas relações com a economia dominante e a economia ambiental / Concepts of ecological economics: its relations with the dominant economy and environmental economics

O trabalho aborda as relações natureza-sociedade com o propósito de ampliar o leque das teorias socioambientais disponíveis. Faz rápida revisão e avaliação crítica do pensamento econômico tradicional diante da dimensão ambiental do processo econômico. Mostra o esforço de se incorporar o meio ambiente ao modelo econômico e trata da atividade econômica sob a restrição ambiental. Introduz a perspectiva da economia ecológica e sua abordagem transdisciplinar, explorando implicações da visão integradora dela decorrente. Conclui com uma apreciação de tendências no pensamento econômico-ecológico, lembrando nomes que as representam, com ênfase em Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen.

The paper deals with nature-society relationships with a view to enlarge the scope of available socio-environmental theories. It makes a review and critical evaluation of traditional economic thought in front of the environmental dimension of the economic process. It shows the effort to incorporate the environment into the economic model and explores the perspective of the economy under environmental restrictions. It introduces the notion of ecological economics and its transdisciplinary approach, examining some implications of its integrating view. It closes with an appreciation of tendencies in economic-ecological thinking, suggesting some names that represent them, with an emphasis on Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen.

Ecologia política, economia ecológica e saúde coletiva: interfaces para a sustentabilidade do desenvolvimento e para a promoção da saúde / Political ecology, ecological economics, and public health: interfaces for the sustainability of development and health promotion

Este trabalho busca trazer para o campo da Saúde Coletiva as contribuições da ecologia política e da economia ecológica, visando a integrar as discussões em torno da promoção da saúde, da sustentabilidade sócio-ambiental e dos processos de desenvolvimento. A economia ecológica é um campo de estudos transdisciplinar recente que reúne economistas com outros profissionais das ciências sociais, humanas e biológicas. Ela tem desenvolvido novos conceitos e metodologias que buscam captar a relação entre a economia com os processos ecológicos e sociais, como metabolismo social e perfil metabólico, inter-relacionando os fluxos econômicos com os de materiais e energia, e produzindo indicadores e índices de (in)sustentabilidade. A ecologia política, por sua vez, aborda as questões ecológicas e os conflitos sócio-ambientais a partir de dinâmicas econômicas e de poder que caracterizam as sociedades modernas. A Saúde Coletiva e as discussões sobre a promoção da saúde podem ampliar sua compreensão sobre o território, as comunidades, o papel da ciência e das instituições a partir das contribuições da ecologia política e da economia ecológica no entendimento dos modelos de desenvolvimento e os conflitos distributivos e sócio-ambientais por ele gerados.

This article proposes to focus contributions from political ecology and ecological economics to the field of collective health with a view towards integrating the discussions around health promotion, socio-environmental sustainability, and development. Ecological economics is a recent interdisciplinary field that combines economists and other professionals from the social, human, and life sciences. The field has developed new concepts and methodologies that seek to grasp the relationship between the economy and ecological and social processes such as social metabolism and metabolic profile, thereby interrelating economic, material, and energy flows and producing indicators and indexes for (un)sustainability. Meanwhile, political ecology approaches ecological issues and socio-environmental conflicts based on the economic and power dynamics characterizing modern societies. Collective health and the discussions on health promotion can expand our understanding of territory, communities, and the role of science and institutions based on the contributions of political ecology and ecological economics in analyzing development models and the distributive and socio-environmental conflicts generated by them.