Environmental conflicts in the Caetés ecological station (Pernambuco, Brazil)

Abstract

This paper discusses the processes that allowed the constitution of an environmental field by the action of a movement in defence of the forest of Caetés, which originally emerged from popular bases. The paper highlights the movement’s most important aspects that marked the socioenvironmental construction of the forest as a protected area today called Caetés Ecological Station. At the same time that it is linked to the environmental movement, the Ecological Station is the subject of an environmental policy of government that, in theory, was structured to respond to the demands of the movement. The difficulties generated by the government’s “absence” did not prevent, however, the establishment of alternative forms of management that would allow a limited community participation as a defence strategy and pressure for an environmental policy in the area.