“Eu tenho que ficar na beira do rio”: memórias, territorialidades e (re) existências ribeirinhas na ecologia política do conflito hidrelétrico de Estreito (MA)

Abstract

From the perspective of political ecology, this research analyzes how collective memory and territorial identity influenced the disputes of the riverside community of Acampamento Coragem over territory in the face of the hydroelectric conflict in Estreito (MA). The hydroelectric conflict arose from the implementation of the Estreito Hydroelectric Power Plant (MA) in 2007, affecting the environment, the ecological diversity of places and the ways of life of traditional peoples and communities who make diverse uses of their territories. Among the affected groups, the riverside community of Acampamento Coragem stands up, which occupies a territory in Palmeiras do Tocantins (TO), and is made up of 39 (thirty-nine) families of artisanal fishermen and riverside dwellers who were affected by the construction of the Estreito HPP. Currently, the land occupied by the community is owned by the Estreito Energia Consortium (CESTE), the plant's developer, which has been in legal dispute over ownership of the land since October 2015. The research is based on the theoretical perspective of Environmental Sociology, anchored in the approach of political ecology, based on understandings of the plurality of positions and interests regarding the environment. The methodological paths are guided by the qualitative approach in social research, using ethnographic research as the central axis of data production and analysis of the permanence in the riverside territory, the contributions of the life stories of the riverside population, using Oral History. The research has a long-term field immersion period, presenting dense analyzes between 2017 and 2024, so this study is based on three distinct ethnographic moments, based on temporalities produced during the years of research, namely: 1st Moment - 2017/2018; 2nd Moment - 2018/2019; and finally, 3rd Moment - 2023/2024. This methodological resource is used to delve into the intangibles of what happens in the social life of the community and makes it possible to describe, from oral narratives, how life has been shaped by the effects faced by the dam developers and the forms of struggle and (re)existence they use to continue exercising their ways of life. As a result, it was possible to see that the effects caused by the construction of the dam in the region, since its installation, have caused disputes, violated rights and compulsorily altered the lives of the people affected. All in all, from the analysis we can conclude that new social technologies are being used to readapt ways of life, and that the mobilizations to remain in the territory are being updated, thus implying threats to future riverside traditions, due to the impossibility of passing on knowledge/doings to new generations who, because of the difficulties caused by the project, end up being discouraged from exercising riverside ways of life. On the other hand, memory and place are significant factors in the exercise of permanence in the territory, by making explicit the demands made by the community in the claims and disputes over the land they occupy.