Large Mining Projects and Socio-Environmental Impacts: Economic and Socio-Environmental Dynamics in Barcarena (Pará, Brazil)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the socio-environmental impacts caused by the “Large Project” of mining in Barcarena, a municipality in the Brazilian Amazon located in the Metropolitan Region of Belém, with a previous rural history, abruptly converted into a mineral processing area. Through documentary analysis of taxes and fees generated, and local development indices, we show how mining activity does not generate development for the inhabitants of Barcarena. For the municipality, only externalities remain. We used secondary, statistical and cartographic data analysis, although we carried out fieldwork to understand the situation on the ground.