A trajetória do setor mineral no município de Pedra Lavrada PB: uma análise das ações públicas para pensar o desenvolvimento

Abstract

The Mining in Pedra Lavrada town, located in the state of Paraíba, presents a mineralogical complex favorable to its exploration. This is the economic activity that generates more income and jobs in the district. However, this positive outlook does not reflect the reality of local mining activity site, for we have spotted socioeconomic and environmental problems. Given this reality, the government (State and Federal) have planned some actions aiming to promote the development of the sector. In this sense, the research that underlies the reflections presented in this paper sought to understand what extent the structured / guided actions are promoting development for the town, and to what extent this development has been inclusive and sustainable, or has only produced economic growth. Therefore, we take three hypothesis as a starting point: (1) that the social dimension, through indicators such as population, employment / income, education, health and even IDHM has not been positively impacted, despite public initiatives in the mineral sector; (2) that the CFEM is a tributary instrument to boost the development of a mineral based town, however, the amounts collected in Pedra Lavrada Town do not match the mineralogical potential of the sector; and (3) that despite evidence of degradation in the local ecosystem, the mining activity is not the main problem of the environmental scenery. To conduct this study we adopted a quantitative/ qualitative methodology, analyzing data from literature and documentary sources, as well as semistructured interviews with agents of public organizations, questionnaires with members of local mining companies and, finally, informal conversations with the miners of different sites. We note that in Pedra Lavrada, despite the effort to plan actions to encourage the mining sector as a driver of development activity, this is still an ongoing project, when measured by indicators of social, economic and environmental impacts of this municipality.