“A cultura da gente, não está ali!”: desterritorialização e o bem-estar animal na evacuação da fauna de comunidades rurais em torno de barragens de rejeitos de mineração em Minas Gerais

Abstract

Mining activity has caused various socio-environmental damages over the years, which are exacerbated by disasters resulting from the rupture of tailings dams. In the State of Minas Gerais (Brazil), the disasters of the Samarco company (in Mariana, November 5th, 2015; 19 deaths) and the VALE company (in Brumadinho, January 25th, 2019; 270 deaths, 6 missing persons) have displaced families, buried rivers, and generated reactions from public entities aimed at allegedly compensating the damages caused. With this investigation, I aimed to achieve the following objectives: analyze the measures established in the Commitments (Termos de Compromissos, TC) signed between the prosecutor’s office of the State of Minas Gerais and VALE, which focused specifically on the protection of affected fauna and guarantees for the welfare of affected animals, especially domestic ones; understand how these measures contribute to the deterritorialization process practiced by the mining companies’ tailings situation. To this end, I have: field research based on my work as a technical auditor of TAC Fauna; analysis of audit reports and records in minutes of discussions held at meetings between stakeholders. During the work, the absence of the main actors in this process was noted – the affected residents and those evacuated from their homes and areas. To take them into account, I conducted interviews with some residents of the municipalities of Socorro in Barão de Cocais and Paracatu in Mariana. In conclusion, the adoption of a technical view by the companies, without considering the relationship of the caretakers with the animals, contributes to the process of deterritorialization, since it changes the traditional way of animal husbandry by the affected families.