Sustentabilidade e multifuncionalidade dos espaços rurais: o caso do complexo eólico Campos Neutrais

Abstract

The present work aimed to analyze the changes associated with the implementation of alternative energy generation projects, specifically the installation of the Campos Neutral Wind Complex, located in rural areas in the extreme south of Rio Grande do Sul, where farmers signed contracts signed with large companies, through which they began to obtain economic benefits in the form of territorial incomes totally unrelated to agricultural production. We investigate the transformations associated with the recent implementation of the “Campos Neutrais Wind Complex” in the far south of Rio Grande do Sul as an alternative for income and diversification of regional economies. There are two guiding questions. On the one hand, it is about knowing how producers evaluate the prospect of having a form of economic income totally detached from agricultural activities; on the other, to assess the extent to which the implementation of clean energy production structures produces changes in the way farmers and leaders perceive the issue of environmental sustainability. The research has as reference and theoretical support the Theory of social representations of Moscovici (1961). Thus, a qualitative research was carried out, in which twenty-six individual semi-structured interviews were carried out. One can extract from the analysis of the content of these perceptions an unquestionable reflection of the representations of the social actors whose rural properties are part of the Campos Neutral Wind Complex and about the mutations experienced by the producers in terms of perceptions about the issue of the production of renewable energies as a source of alternative income. In this context, we examine how this transition has been metabolized in farmers' mental processes. The revelation of this dynamic proved to be innovative, highlighting the significant changes that occurred in the lives of the owners who joined the project, with beneficial effects on the communities involved and the regions where the Complex was implemented. The great effect was precisely to establish the concept, with no historical precedents, that non-agricultural income-generating activities could be developed in rural areas totally unrelated to agricultural production and how these activities can transform rural ideas and practices. The traditional vocation of rural spaces as mere food producers is no longer enough to meet the new demands and demands of Brazilian society and regional collectivities, that is, new functions are now assigned to rural areas. However, there are no elements that point to a change of producers with respect to environmentalism. Farmers and rural leaders are largely adhering to a view that sees the environmental issue as curtailing rights over the use of natural resources.