Resumo:
The extractive reserves reflect a power shift in the spatial organization of the conservation
territory, based on the social conflict of rubber tappers. In fact, the transformation caused
by the institutionalization of the first Brazilian forest RESEX1
produced a
significant movement for Brazilian environmental policy, the creation of the National
System of Nature Conservation Units – SNUC, Law 9,985/2000. The model created and
demanded by extractive populations has expanded to different parts of the country, as
well as to marine and coastal environments. Despite these achievements expressing how
important the institutionalization of the RESEX territory was for the social struggle,
especially for the populations of the traditional matrix, the Brazilian RESEX model
directly clashes and at the same time contrasts the structure and organization of the
Brazilian Territorial State. In Brazil, the land issue has never been resolved, as it produces
very serious territorial conflicts that affect natural spaces. Nature has been constantly
appropriated by private capital, since the rationality of the capitalist mode of production
is based on the indiscriminate exploitation of nature's elements/resources. In the case of
the marine RESEX, especially the RESEX of Canavieiras, Bahia, where this study is
based, the conflict is established not only because different social groups establish
different relationships over the same territory, that of the RESEX, but because the State
is often omitted and corroborates with actions produced by private capital. Although the
State has, as an obligation and as a principle, the duty to meet the needs and desires of all
citizens without distinction, it is known that, in practice, it follows the structural logic of
providing financial resources for hegemonic groups, in many cases, their business
partners. In Brazil, this type of practice produced by the State is quite common in spaces
of nature, which has generated tensions and territorial conflicts at the cost of the
impoverishment of the poorest. Not different in the territory of the RESEX of Canavieiras,
tension and conflicts are due to the expansion of shrimp farming, the presence of
latifundia, the monoculture of eucalyptus, the incentives for industrial projects by the
State and the overlapping of areas, that is, different types of conservation units occupying
the same territory. These are conflicts that go against the objectives of a marine RESEX.
Although the RESEX model is inert, as the territory is dynamic, the RESEX is indeed an
important political space for extractive populations. The Brazilian State is increasingly
1 Acronym for extractive reserve
precarious for environmental public policies, but still maintains the centralization and
regulation of power over conservation territories. Even though the State has relegated the
environmental agenda and at all times disqualifies the social achievements of the
populations of traditional matrix, the RESEX of Canavieiras remains in the vanguard,
exercising utopia through the desire for autonomy, but without losing access to public
policies produced by the Brazilian State. They are new ways of managing and organizing
the territory, but they are also new ways of (re)existing and rethinking the RESEX model
from the lens, the attentive and everyday look of its users. It is the freedom to organize
the territory beyond the control and limits of the State. After all, only hope builds the
strong.