Legislação, imposição e infração ambiental: uma análise de discursos e práticas em assentamento ambientalmente diferenciado em Anapu

Abstract

The Virola-Jatobá Sustainable Development Project (PDS) is considered an environmentally differentiated settlement, because it has in its guidelines the insertion of rural workers who carry out activities of low environmental impact. The settlement received in 2015 a Notice of Infringement from the State of Pará Environmental Secretary (SEMAS). It blamed the settlers for unauthorized deforestation, generating among insecurity regarding the accomplishment of their subsistence activities. Deforested areas were, to a great extent, located in the so-called areas of alternative use, land plots made available to settlers to carry out their agricultural practices. This work seeks to assess how settlers perceive the effect of State action in their activities, through the enforcement of environmental legislation. Firstly, we sought to systematize the environmental legislation related to the activities carried out by PDS VirolaJatobá residents, discussing legislation and specificities of the area. As the settlers also received a notice for deforestation in permanent preservation areas, some of the settlement plots were mapped, assessing deforested areas. Subsequently interviews were applied to obtain settlers’ perception on these areas and on the factors that lead them to deforestation or not. To achieve the objectives, three semi-structured questionnaries were developed: one for residents addressing APPs, one for residents addressing livelihoods and environmental legislation, and another for public institutions’ officials working in the PDS. The main foundations considered in the interviews were citizens’ fundamental rights, the rights to access food, and the context in which the peasantry survives, and their relationship with the land. The findings were that the environmental legislation often does not take into account the specificities of the areas, also presenting the lack of dialogue between the institutions that work in the PDS. APPs are a wellknown topic among the interviewees, and the fundamental factor for deforesting or not the land is related to the main activities carried out by the residents. Those who crop the land have a greater share of forest in their land than those who are ranchers. In relation to settlers’ perception of the state, their narratives convey to it the notion of a "boss". It was also verified that state officials’ perspective expresses greater priority to the enforcement of the environmental legislation, than to settlers’ access to fundamental rights.