Ruralidades e política ambiental: heterogeneidade socioeconômica e lógicas indiferenciadas dos projetos públicos de pagamento por serviços ambientais

Abstract

The new ruralities have as a major feature a high degree of socio-economic and socio-cultural heterogeneity, based on the coexistence of farmers and new residents in rural areas. As landowners, both become the target of new environmental policies, including payment for water-related ecosystem services (PSA-Water). The paper analyzes the central component of PSA-Water, the payment, from the perspective of equity in the distribution of financial resources in the context of new ruralities. In 2013, we interviewed 77 farmers participating in three major Brazilian projects of PSA-Water. The projects were implemented in areas where landowners have different socioeconomic profiles. The degree of dependence on the rural property for the social reproduction of the household is a central component of this differentiation. PSA projects allocated larger amounts to landholders less dependent on the property for their livelihoods, but proportionally to the income of the households, contributed more to landholders more dependent on their lands. Two features of the design of projects tend to make invisible the heterogeneity of landholders. First, to adopt mainly environmental criteria to define the amount of the payment; and second, to take being a landholder (any type) as the main criterion for eligibility.