Agricultural and water use frontiers in the Brazilian Amazon: contradictions and conflicts in water governance by Daniela Maimoni de Figueiredo

This event has ended.

The agricultural frontier of the Brazilian Amazon is also a water use frontier, considering the recent and accelerated advance of irrigation by agribusiness in monoculture farming (soybeans) and for hydroelectric energy generation, as part of Brazil’s insertion into regional and global markets for agricultural and energy commodities. This advance is particularly evident in the Teles Pires River Basin, a tributary of the Amazon River located between the savannah and the rainforest in Mato Grosso State, where irrigation has increased by more than 90% in the last four years and five large hydroelectric power plants have been built.

This lecture will present a study carried out in this river basin, which analysed the water governance model, particularly the execution of the Brazilian Water Resources Law and social participation in decision making, in the context of historical and hegemonic land use and energy production models. It will also discuss water conflicts, as between indigenous communities and the hydroelectric sector.