Confins ()
Presença ausente e ausência presente do Estado na produção do espaço para o turismo no Vale do Ribeira paulista
Abstract
Ribeira Valley Region, located in the southern State of Sao Paulo, has 20% of the remaining Atlantic Forest of Brazil and has the lowest human development indices of this State which has the highest density of technical-scientific-informational environment and capital. The current socio-spatial configuration of this region is a product of a historical process marked by the action and inaction of the State, which plays its role in the production of space in different ways depending on the history movement. When considering public policies for regional development directed to the Valley, from 60s to the early 80s, there is a centralized and inefficient state action without the involvement of civil society in the production process of its policies. We call this period “absent presence of the State in Ribeira Valley.” From the 80s, a number of factors lead the region to face new problems and challenges. A democratization policy, the advance of neoliberalism, the growing concern about the so-called environmental issues, and the increasing number of nonprofit organizations and decentralization of public policies trigger production of a new form the State plays its role in the production of space. In this context, there is a clear shift in focus from targeted state actions to Ribeira Valley, mainly influenced by environmental NGOs, which now operate actively in the political arena. Since then, starts the speech made by public agencies and NGOs, that ecotourism is an alternative to the Valley, able to reconcile environmental conservation and social development. However, the state will act to nonprofit organizations in charge of planning the regional development of the Ribeira Valley, becoming the entity funding of the projects. This new face of the state makes the development of ecotourism in the region, to some extent, depends on the level of social organization in each county or community and their capacity to formulate projects for capturing public resources, or organizations of interest to exogenous implement projects in the region. This period, we call an “absence of the State.”
Keywords
