HYDROELECTRIC DAMS AND TRADITIONAL TERRITORIES IN RONDÔNIA: SIGNS OF REPRODUCTION OF THE LOWER CIRCUIT OF THE ECONOMY

Abstract

The state of Rondônia is the result of several interventions in its territory since the 19th century. However, conflicts intensified in the region from 1960’s, when migration was encouraged under the slogan ‘land without men for landless men,’ with the local population seen as ‘backward,’ such migratory processes altered the reproduction of capital in space, with changes in use or production and use of labor. The state was also the target of several territorial development projects: rubber and wood protection cycle, mining, Polonoroeste, Planafloro and more recently hydroelectric projects that produced changes in the positive economic dynamics in the Upper Circuit of the Economy, without generating positive impacts in the Lower Cycle of the Economy. The construction of hydroelectric plants left the affected territories in a worse situation than before their construction (bust). Compulsory displacement altered the qualities of social and economic aspects since the limitation or impossibility of access to the river triggered a series of economic and symbolic losses. The panorama of these losses is the focus of this work, based on the study of the Cujubinzinho and Nova Mutum-Paraná Communities, which was done based on interviews at different times, over a decade.

Keywords:
Brazilian Amazon; lower circuit of economy; hydroelectric dams; economic impacts; social impacts