Capital social e governança ambiental em cooperativas minerais: evidências da Amazônia Brasileira

Abstract

Artisanal mining in the Amazon faces environmental governance challenges in contexts marked by productive informality and limited institutional capacity. This study examines how cooperative principles and the dimensions of social capital sustain, or constrain, environmental rules, responsibilities, and routines in a mineral cooperative located in Marabá, Pará, Brazil. A qualitative case study was conducted based on 11 semi-structured interviews, field observation, and document analysis, interpreted through the structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions of social capital. The findings indicate that assemblies, consensus, and social control strengthen trust and coordination, supporting compliance-oriented environmental practices. However, productive instability weakens the continuity of routines, while the limited appropriation of principles, rights, duties, and economic criteria undermines the cognitive dimension. The study’s main contribution lies in demonstrating that the limits of environmental governance stem from the difficulty of transforming relational ties into formal learning, shared criteria, defined responsibilities, and internal monitoring. This limitation becomes more evident when examined through the lens of Green Entrepreneurial Orientation, which reveals a reactive green orientation driven by regulatory enforcement, market demands, and reputational protection. In addition, territorial preservation values support practices such as waste disposal management and reforestation, without generating proactiveness, incremental innovation, and willingness to take environmental risks. The study concludes that environmental governance in Amazonian mineral cooperatives depends on converting social capital into dynamic capabilities, that is, the cooperative’s ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external resources and competencies, transforming organizational learning into green practices.