Development policies in the Brazilian
Amazon
Armin Mathis
(NAEA/UFPA)
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Some basic data about the Amazon: what shall be
developed?
The analytical framework: The Amazon a region of the
modern periphery
Political intervention in the Brazilian Amazon
Regional development: some thesis
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Some basic data
Amazon Basin:
Brazil
Peru
Bolivia
Colombia
Equador
Venezuela
Guiana
6.112.000 km2
63%
17%
11%
5,8%
2,2%
0,7%
0,2%
Population
1950
3.800.000
2007
23.550.000
516%
(=13,8% of the Brazilian population)
Population density:
Roraima
Belém
4,6 hab/km2
1,76 hab/km2
>1.000 hab/km2
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Some basic data
Illiteracy rate (pop>= 15 years)
Acre
Amazonas
Amapá
Pará
Rondônia
Roraima
Tocantins
Brasil
2000
24,5
15,5
12,1
16,8
13,0
13,5
18,8
13,6
2010
16,5
9,9
8,4
11,7
8,7
10,3
13,1
9,6
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Some basic data
Gross domestic product
Brasil
Norte
Rondônia
Acre
Amazonas
Roraima
Pará
Amapá
Tocantins
Nordeste
Maranhão
Sudeste
Sul
Centro-Oeste
Mato Grosso
2002
100,0
4,7
0,5
0,2
1,5
0,2
1,7
0,2
0,4
13,0
1,0
56,7
16,9
2005
100,0
5,0
0,6
0,2
1,6
0,1
1,8
0,2
0,4
13,1
1,2
56,5
16,6
2010
100,0
5,3
0,6
0,2
1,6
0,2
2,1
0,2
0,5
13,5
1,2
55,4
16,5
8,8
1,4
8,9
1,7
9,3
1,6
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Some basic data
1.000
0.900
0.800
0.700
0.600
0.500
2004
2005
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
The analytic framework
Social acting is affected by the material environmental condition and
social acting changes the material environment
The Amazon is material environment for social action
(communication) and social order.
The Amazon is embedded twice in a global context
The Amazon is a geographical space characterized by a specific
resource assets
The interest in the Amazon is (also) the interest in its resources
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
The analytic framework
The inclusion in the global economic system has impacts on social
organization at local level and depends of social organization at
national level
The Amazon is situated in the periphery of the modernity, it’s a
modern periphery
Past experiences with development policies continue present in the
region
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Political intervention in the Brazilian Amazon
The Amazon under the Brazilian military dictatorship:
ordem e progresso
Program of National Integration / Programa de Integração Nacional
Amazon a strategic region for the Brazilian development process
“a land without men for men without land”
road construction, colonization
National Development Programs (II. 1975-1979, III. 1979-1985)
POLAMAZONIA, POLONOROEESTE, Programa Grande Carajás (PGC)
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Political intervention in the Brazilian Amazon
The Transition
Sarney, Collor, Itamar
Program “Our Nature”
institutional framework for the environment policies
Rio 92
environment policy as entrance to the club of the modern nations
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Political intervention in the Brazilian Amazon
FHC
Neoliberalism and he golden age of the NGOs
PPG7 Programa Piloto
institutional framework for the environment policies
National Development Axis
institutional framework for the environment policies
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Political intervention in the Brazilian Amazon
Théry 2005: 40
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Political intervention in the Brazilian Amazon
Théry 2005: 44
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Political intervention in the Brazilian Amazon
Théry 2005: 48
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Political intervention in the Brazilian Amazon
Lula & Dilma
Development needs growth and growth needs natural
resources, infrastructure and energy
PAC – Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento
PAS – Sustainable Development Plan for the Amazon
(Plano Amazônia Sustentável)
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Political intervention in the Brazilian Amazon
Lula & Dilma
Regional Integration, national sovereignty and a new
identity for the Military: policy at the borderline
PDFF– Program for the Development of the Border
(Programa de Desenvolvimento da Faixa da Fronteira
PAS – Sustainable Development Plan for the Amazon
(Plano Amazônia Sustentável)
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Political intervention in the Brazilian Amazon
Brasil (2009): 13
Brasil (2009): 29
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Regional development: some thesis
The choice of the regional development model has effects on the
development possibilities outside of the region.
There is more than ‘one’ Amazon, and any development policy has to
recognize and to incorporate this diversity in a coherent model and
not in a set of conflictive activities and land uses.
The population of the Amazon is mostly not rural.
The territorial border in the Amazon is not an obstacle but an
opportunity for regional development
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Regional development: some thesis
The territorial border in the Amazon is not an obstacle but an
opportunity for regional development.
Each local / regional development model needs to be recognized
and legitimate by the population.
The development model has to define the form of the regions
insertion in the national and global economic and social context
A regional / local development model must be knowledge based.
The form the state and its agencies perform in the region is decisive
for the success of a development model.
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
References
References
BRASIL / Ministério da Integração Nacional / Secretaria de Programas
Regionais. Programa de Promoção do Desenvolvimento da Faixa de
Fronteira – PDFF. Brasília 2009.
THÉRY, H. Situações da Amazônia no Brasil e no continente. Estudos
Avançados 19 (53): 37-49. São Paulo 2005.
Development policies in the Brazilian Amazon
Armin Mathis
Armin Mathis studied Economy and Political Science at the Philipps-University in
Marburg, 1987, Dipl. in Political Science at the Free University of Berlin, 1995, PhD
in Political Science at Free University of Berlin.
Since 1998 he is ordinary Professor at UFPA/NAEA, 2009/2012 General Director of
the Centre for Advanced Amazon Studies (Núcleo de Altos Estudos Amazônicos) at
the Federal University of Pará, Belém, Brazil.
His main areas of research involve public policy for regional development, mining
and its contributions to regional development, social systems theory.
armin.mathis@ufpa.br
armin.mathis@gmail.com