UHE Belo Monte e a soberania alimentar dos povos indígenas na Volta Grande do Xingu

Abstract

The historical trajectory of the environmental licensing process for Brazil's Belo Monte Dams included the elaboration of mitigation and compensation measures aimed at the indigenous peoples affected by the project, which make up the Basic Environmental Plan (Plano Básico Ambiental - PBA). Among the PBA's measures, those aimed at guaranteeing food for the Yudjá (Juruna) indigenous people, who live in the Paquiçamba Indigenous Territory, located in the Volta Grande do Xingu (VGX) region, stand out. This region corresponds to a stretch of approximately 130 km, where the flow of the Xingu River was reduced after the installation of the dam that diverts its waters to the hydroelectric reservoir. However, the independent territorial environmental monitoring carried out by the Yudjá people indicates, in the midst of recording the impacts on their territory and their ways of life, that the PBA measures do not consider the sociocultural aspects of their diet, so that the food sovereignty of this population may be at risk. Thus, this research aimed to explore the processes of conflict between the PBA measures and the independent monitoring carried out by the Yudjá people, starting from the affectations and contradictions generated by threats to the food sovereignty of these groups. The analysis perspective for the differentiation between the PBA and the independent monitoring was given by the discourse analysis instruments, more specifically the content analysis of the two documents. The main results indicate contradictions related to the decrease in fish consumption, changes in fish species caught and changes in fishing gear in the VGX.