Sand extraction in the baixo Jacuí/RS hydrographic basin

socio-environmental conflicts, public policies and regional development

Abstract

The mining issue requires careful attention from Public Policy as it involves individual and collective rights. In the analysis of Public Policies inherent to the extraction of white sand and the socio-environmental conflict, the period from 2013 to 2020 was delimited, demonstrating different groups of public and private actors. The relationship between the actors and the sand mining companies in the riverbed was understood within the territorial space of the Baixo Jacuí Watershed, comprised by the municipalities of Charqueadas, Eldorado do Sul, São Jerônimo and Triunfo, all of them located in Rio Grande do Sul. The theoretical basis was based on Public Policies aimed at mining sand, interest groups, changes to the Mining Code, environmental policies, supervisory bodies and the mining company
that owns the Mining Groups, within the scope of the aforementioned municipalities. Aspects of public policies were analyzed; environmental; of the new Mining Code and regional development. It is in this context that the problem to be debated arises: How are interests and possible conflicts established around the activity of extraction of white sand, in the Baixo Jacuí Hydrographic Basin between the mining company and public and private actors and what actions are adopted by the Public sector? Representatives of FEPAM, COREDE Centro-Sul, former president of the Baixo
Jacuí Basin Committee, ANM and the mining company were interviewed. In view of this, the dynamics and mining practices and the production of corresponding negative and positive impacts were observed. It was not verified the existence of coordination that would allow the integration between governance structures and public policies in mining, noting the need for organized proximity of governance and a reformulation of public policies applied to the sector.