Neoliberalização da natureza: concessão de Parques Nacionais do estado do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

In contemporary capitalism, the neoliberalization of nature occurs. The capitalist appropriation of nature, which has always existed, now presents as one of its possibilities the commodification of environmental protection itself, in a variety of forms. The regulatory projects that encourage concessions of the management of protected areas, known as Conservation Units in Brazil, are an example of this process. Nature, which has always been commodified under capitalism, has now become part of an ecological market, meaning that environmental protection has become a strategy of accumulation, with the privatization of protected areas. The National System of Conservation Units includes different categories of protected areas, one of which is National Parks. These are considered, legally, as a full protection category, meaning their primary objective is environmental protection, but they also allow and encourage tourist use. In recent years, the State has been promoting the concession of visitation management of these National Parks to private companies, with various contractual models available. There are 75 National Parks in Brazil, and in the state of Rio de Janeiro, there are five: Itatiaia, Serra dos Órgãos, Tijuca, Restinga de Jurubatiba and Serra da Bocaina. All five of Rio de Janeiro's National Parks have been in some stage of the private concession process. Identifying the neoliberalization of nature as a problem in the current context of capitalism, we arrive at the overall objective of this work: to understand how the neoliberalization of nature is expressed through the private concession of management of the National Parks in the state of Rio de Janeiro. To this end, it proposes to present the origins of the creation of National Parks as associated with private interests, discuss the centrality of nature in the neoliberal capitalist accumulation strategy in the state of Rio de Janeiro, investigate the neoliberalization of nature based on legislative changes encouraging partnerships between the state and private entities for the management of protected areas, analyze the different experiences of concessioning National Parks in the state of Rio de Janeiro, as well as the companies involved, and to contribute to the discussion on new forms of appropriation of nature in contemporary capitalism. The work uses historical materialism as its method, and bibliographical, documentary, and field research as its investigative procedures. The research argues that the state of Rio de Janeiro holds centrality in this process, since nature has always been mobilized as landscape and touristic capital there, and answers its question by highlighting that park concessions in the state of Rio de Janeiro are based on legislative reorganizations promoted by the State, are guided by private interests, are sustained by a regime of financialization, inaugurate new possibilities for privatization, involve neoliberal ideological discourses of efficiency and discourses that promote the instrumentalization of environmental protection for private interests.