Paper short abstract:

This presentation discusses the experience of social participation and social acceptance that took place during the implementation of the Xingu Sustainable Regional Development Plan – PDRSX, in Amazon region

Paper long abstract:

Alongside the management councils (set up as local state policy), numerous ad hoc experiments in social participation have taken place in Brazil as national government policies, such as the implementation, in 2010, of the Xingu Sustainable Regional Development Plan – PDRSX. It aimed to minimize regional inequalities by implementing actions of regional development in municipalities affected by the Belo Monte, the third biggest hydropower plant in the world. This presentation discusses the experience of social participation and social acceptance that took place during the implementation of the PDRSX, a government policy, and how it was articulated with the existing management councils, a state policy. We analyze some of the dilemmas of social participation and social acceptance pointed out in the literature. Through the PDRSX and the minutes of COMAM (Altamira Municipal Environmental Council), we analyze the configuration of social acceptance in the region affected by Belo Monte hydroelectric dam and its impact on accountability for the control and continuity of the project.

We analyzed the institutional documents of the PDRSX, the memories of the Technical Chambers of Infrastructure and Development, Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Populations, and Health from June 2013 to August 2018. Additionally, interviews with social actors and municipal employees were conducted from 2013 to 2022, along with an analysis of Altamira's COMAM minutes from 2009 to 2022. The PDRSX case reveals a disconnect between state and government policies, nebulous public-private sector relations, and limits of social participation. Participatory development lacking interdependent relationships with existing mechanisms risks long-term inefficiency.