Faculty of Planaltina, University of Brasília
Bio
Author Biography
Andréa Leme da Silva is a collaborator researcher at the Postgraduate Program for the Environment and Rural Development at the Faculty of Planaltina, University of Brasília, Brazil. Her research focuses on political ecology, environmental governance, and social conflicts around large-scale irrigated agriculture in the Cerrado. She also works as a consultant for international cooperation organisations, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Interamerican Development Bank, World Bank, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), on behalf of indigenous and traditional peoples in Brazil.
ART-Dev, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, Univ Perpignan Via Domitia, Montpellier, France.
Bio
Author Biography
Ludivine Eloy is an agronomist (AgroparisTech) with a PhD in Geography (University Paris 3, France). She is currently a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS, UMR ART-Dev, Montpellier) and collaborative researcher at the University of Brasília. Her research interests include traditional resource management practices and their interfaces with environmental norms and agricultural landscapes dynamics in Brazil. Her recent publications include the delimitation and management of protected areas in the Cerrado (Journal of Peasant Studies), agrobiodiversity in soybean interstices (Confins), fire management (Ambio, Geographical Journal, Flora), and more recently, changing water regimes in the Matopiba (Water).
Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary
Bio
Author Biography
Karla Rosane Aguiar Oliveira is a PhD student at the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Canada. She has worked with the ‘Water for All’ public policy in Brazil, which provided access to fresh water for more than 1 million families in situations of extreme poverty. She participates in academic projects such as the Observatory for Socio-environmental Conflicts in Matopiba, Brazil, a network of researchers and activists which aims to understand the socio-environmental conflicts in that region. Her main topics are water grabbing and water governance, the expansion of the agricultural frontier, and traditional populations.
University of Brasília
Bio
Author Biography
Osmar Coelho Filho holds a certificate degree in Agroecology from the University of California and a master’s degree in Sustainable Development from the Center for Sustainable Development (Centro de Desenvolvimento Sustentável, CDS), University of Brasília (Universidade de Brasília, UnB). He is a PhD candidate in the Environmental Technology and Water Resources graduate programme (Programa de Pós-Graduação em Tecnologia Ambiental e Recursos Hídricos, PTARH), UnB. His research focuses on water crises and water security, environmental management, and institutional economics. He was the 2010 recipient of the HSBC Bank National Award on Sustainable Development. Previously, he worked as an assistant researcher at the Institute for Applied Social and Economic Research (Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada, Ipea) and CDS, UnB.
Environmentalist, photographer, documentary filmmaker
Bio
Author Biography
Marcos Rogério Beltrão dos Santos is an environmentalist, photographer, documentary filmmaker, and member of various social movements: Grande Sertão Veredas Environmental Movement; Collective of Traditional Communities of Fundo e Fecho de Pasto of Western Bahia; Corrente river basin committee; Regional Consultative Chamber of the Middle São Francisco; Águas do Oeste Collective; and State Council for the Sustainability of Traditional Peoples and Communities.
Volume 54
Number 1
Published: February 2, 2023
The spread of soy monoculture in the Brazilian Cerrado relies on land and water grabbing, although water appropriation is a least studied issue in the current literature. A mixed-methods approach was used to study changes in water use in western Bahia and the evolution of water and environmental standards over the last 20 years. The results show that the deregulation of environmental laws by the Bahia state Institute for the Environment and Water Resources (Instituto do Meio Ambiente e Recursos Hidricos, INEMA) has facilitated deforestation and water grabbing for large-scale irrigation by industrial agriculture. The social dynamics of struggles and resistance to this process was also analysed. The results show that water appropriation in the neoliberal agricultural frontiers of the Cerrado has changed not only water use and flows but also water governance systems, flows of power, and the representations that underpin them.
A disseminação da monocultura de soja no Cerrado brasileiro depende da apropriação de terra e água, embora a apropriação de água seja uma questão menos estudada na literatura atual. Este artigo utiliza uma abordagem de métodos mistos para estudar as mudanças no uso da água no oeste da Bahia e a evolução dos padrões hídricos e ambientais nos últimos 20 anos. Os resultados da análise demonstram que a desregulamentação das leis ambientais pelo Instituto do Meio Ambiente e Recursos Hídricos (INEMA) facilitou o desmatamento e a apropriação de água para irrigação em larga escala pela agricultura industrial. O artigo analisa também a dinâmica social das lutas e da resistência a este processo. Os resultados demonstram que a apropriação da água nas fronteiras agrícolas neoliberais do Cerrado modificou não apenas o uso e os fluxos de água, mas também os sistemas de governança da água, os fluxos de poder e as representações que os sustentam.
