TOWARD PARTICIPATORY MANAGEMENT OF RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES (WIND-FARM) IN NORTHEASTERN BRAZIL

Abstract

Although wind power is a "clean" energy source, studies show that wind-farm implementation in northeastern Brazil is causing diverse social and negative environmental impacts to people who live in coastal areas, especially traditional fishers, small farmers, runaway slave communities (quilombolas), and indigenous groups. Social opposition to wind farms grows daily, and people allied with social movements, associations, human rights organizations, and universities have made many local interventions to stop construction. This research aims to demonstrate that even though investments in Brazilian wind power, especially Cear state, were based on a conservationist and regionalist discourse, wind power benefits actually flow to outside groups without financial returns accruing locally, and, even worse, causing material and non-material damages to people who live near wind farms. This study reveals that laws regulating wind-power development in Brazil facilitate the implementation of wind farms to the detriment of broad social acceptance because it is a means to make local residents "invisible," as in the case of exclusion of communities on maps used to obtain environmental licenses or land-title fraud (grilagem) of collective and historical land claims. Finally, we suggest measures for better control of policies for wind-farm development in Cear that would make it possible for communities to negotiate as equals with wind-power investors and obtain benefits from the profitability of wind-power generation.