Environmental Injustice in Northeast Brazil: The Pecém Industrial and Shipping Complex

Antônio Jeovah de Andrade Meireles, João Alfredo Telles Melo and Magnólia Azevedo Said

A chapter in Environmental Impacts of Transnational Corporations in the Global South, 2018, vol. 33, pp 171-187 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: The present study evaluates the principal forms of socioenvironmental damage suffered by local traditional populations and indigenous communities as a result of the installation and operation of the Pecém Industrial and Shipping Complex. The main problem being pollution in the municipalities of São Gonçalo do Amarante and Caucaia, which is in the Brazilian state of Ceará. As a theoretical framework, we use the concept of “environmental justice,” and “environmental racism.” The latter were used to understand the process of “deterritorialization” of these communities that resulted in extensive impacts on the natural environment, as well as the way of life and productive practices of these communities. Our analyses confirm the destruction of the means that allow noncapitalist exploitation of natural resources, such as artisanal fisheries, subsistence farming, and the use of commons. We show how all these processes are constitutive of environmental injustice and environmental racism. These may contribute to the organization of the resistance and struggle of the affected populations, namely indigenous peoples and traditional communities.

Keywords: Pecém Industrial Complex; traditional and indigenous communities; environmental justice; social and environmental damage; impacts water resources; social and environmental conflicts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:rpeczz:s0161-723020180000033007

DOI: 10.1108/S0161-723020180000033007

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