Poverty in the Brazilian Amazon and the challenges for development

Bibliographic Data

ID5166889
AuthorsDanuzia Lima Rodrigues (0000-0002-0823-6080, Universidade Federal do Sul e Sudeste do Pará), Daniel Nogueira Silva (0000-0002-8379-4672, Universidade Federal do Sul e Sudeste do Pará, Brasil; Universidade Federal do Pará, Brazil)
Year2023
Volume39
Issue10
Publication date2023-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCadernos de Saude Publica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0102-311X • E-ISSN: 1678-4464
PublisherFapUNIFESP (SciELO) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1590/0102-311xen100223
OpenAlexW4387622916
SCIELO_PIDS0102-311X2023001000501
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited8

The economic and social transformations that occurred in the Brazilian Amazon in the 20th century show the profound contradictions of the development models implemented in the region throughout its history.The natural resources mapped in the region since the 1950s, some of them identified before that, have placed this territory at the center of national and regional political disputes for the exploitation of its wealth 1 .With the advance and appropriation of these resources by large capitalist companies, evidence indicates that these models of development do not contribute to better living conditions for the local populations.Data 2 on the region expose a set of needs and vulnerabilities to which populations in the Amazon are subjected.The classic indicators of poverty, such as the Municipal Human Development Index (M-HDI) and per capita income, indicate that the Amazon remains one of the poorest regions in Brazil.In 2020, the average M-HDI of the municipalities in the region was 0.736, which is considered high but still below the national average.Average monthly income of employed persons aged 14 years or older in the region was BRL 2,059.75 in 2020, also below the national average of BRL 2,782.5.According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), in 2019, about 20.9% of the population in the region lived below the poverty line, that is, with a monthly per capita income less than BRL 486.00.About 9.7% of the population lives in extreme poverty, with per capita income up to BRL 168.00.As a consequence, despite accounting for only 8.6% of the country's population in 2019, this territory presented 15.73% of the total Brazilian population living in poverty and extreme poverty.Access to basic sanitation is another factor that increases vulnerability in this territory.In 2021, according to the Brazilian National Sanitation Information System (SNIS) 3 , almost 40 and 80% of the population did not have access to drinking water and sanitation services, respectively.According to a large body of literature 4 , the scarcity of drinking water and the lack of adequate sanitation services contribute to the spread of water-borne diseases and increase the risk of contamination and infection.Considering that access to work opportunities and income is linked to health conditions, based on a set of causal relationships, the lack of basic sanitation perpetuates cycles of poverty that are difficult to break 5 .This set of factors 6 exposes some of the limits of the development models underway in the Amazon.The economic dynamics generated by the exploitation of mineral resources and timber products, as well as by the production of soybean commodities and extensive livestock, bring positive economic

Amazon rainforest · Biology · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Poverty · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Ecology · Income, Poverty, and Inequality

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