Delimitação da Amazônia para fins de planejamento econômico

Resumo

Professor Lúcio de Castro Soares, chief of the Northern Region Section of the National Council of Geography, presents a study on the limits of Amazônia "for the purposes of economic planning".

            In the present work, various criteria which could be used to establish the limits of Amazonia are examined, and the last criterion which the author felt best suited the purpose of delimiting the boundary for economic planning, is treated in more detail.

            For strictly scientific purposes, the limits could coincide with those of the great equatorial forest, known as the Amazon Hylea. Such limits would, however, be inadequate for the purpose of planning. If limited in this manner, various sections would be excluded which should not be separated from the region of Amazonia when the latter is considered a geoeconomic unit. Such a method would include half of the island of Marajó and a large part of the Rio Branco Territory, both of which are grasslands and therefore outside of the Hylea proper. In the second place, such limits would exclude from the region those zones through which routes of access to the actual Hylea must pass and in which much work must be done on reclamation and economic valorization. But. these lines of communication actually constitute one of the fundamental parta of any development of Amazonia, especially when viewed from a national and not merely a local point o f view. Basing the limits on the drainage basin would, be the easiest and most convenient method, as far as a description of the line of demarcation is concerned. Such a criterion would, however, have two. important disadvantages. First, it would exclude from Amazonia important part of the Hylea which are not, strictly speaking, in the Amazon drainage basin, but which have characteristics and problems that are typical of the Amazon - such as a zone in eastern Pará and an area in western and northwestern Maranhão (known as the "Maranhão Guyana"). On the other hand, such a criterion would include zones of the West-Central region (região Centro-Oeste) which are already well integrated in the economic area of Southern Brazil and have problems that differ greatly from those of Amazonia. It must be remembered at this point that modern Geography does not attach great value to the characterization of regions on the basis of hydrographic basins.

            Being preferable to adopt an eclectic criterion for the limits of Amazonia, a tentative one was proposed by the Sociedade dos Amigos de Alberto Torres, in which Amazonia would be outlined by parallels and meridians, as well as by state boundaries. Such limits would not, however, correspondents the objectives in view. The effect would be to include in Amazonia some areas with very different characteristics and problems which are already integrated in other geo-economic regions of the country - such as the Cuiabá zone in Mato Grosso, and Southern Maranhão. On the other hand, important areas in the state o f Goiás, which come into the economic sphere of influence of Belem-do-Pará, would be excluded; as would be large sections of the valleys of the Tocantins and Araguaia Rivers.

            The criterion selected by the author is in harmony with a detailed study of the zones which should or should not be included in the large area which is to be the subject of a plan of reclamation and economic vaporization. Such a criterion is necessarily complex and is not restricted to any one simple point of view, but considers a series of factors, namely: the limits of the · Amazon Hylea; the water divide of the Amazon Basin; the spheres of influence of the economic center of the Amazon; the need for developing the so-called "no man's land", that is, the large unpopulated area that separates the Hylea from the already occupied area o f the Central Highlands; and the land transportation routes o f Amazonia, through which the effective conquest of that region will take place, integrating it with the economy and the cultural life of Brazil.

            There are three main land routes upon which depends the integration of Amazonia with the life of the nation: The Tocantins Valley, through which will pass the Transbrazilian Highway (and its side road which is now being built by the Colônia Agrícola Nacional de Goiás) which will be the real axis of transportation in a northerly direction; the Aragarças-Manaus road which is now being bully by the Fundação Brasil Central; and the road from Cuiabá to Porto Velho, in the Guaporé Territory, part of the great cross-country route called the "Rodovia Centro-Oeste". The zones that are crossed by these main routes of penetration must be included within the boundaries of the territory to which the valorization plan of Amazonia will be applied.

            Unless the extensive areas to be traversed by these roads are developed, any tentative plan of integration of the Amazon Hylea with the national life will be precarious. A stable and permanent conquest of Amazonia must be started from the south, from the Central Highlands (Planalto Central), in accordance with the brilliant foresight of Roy Nash. Any vaporization plan must include the large unpopulated area - "no man's land" - located just to the south of the Hylea. That was one of the fundamental ideas which oriented the plans for the proposal that was well developed in section IV of the study made by Professor Lúcio de Castro Soares.

            In section V is found the description and justification down to the smallest detail of the proposed limits. Treating the boundary with a view toward planning that would be carried out by public funds, the line has been conventionally drawn, where possible, along the divisions between the political and administrative units. The proposed limits effectively make use of state, county and district boundaries for almost the entire region, except for a few short sections where it was infeasible. In such cases, the boundary line was always drawn in a manner that took advantage of natural and easily recognized features such as rivers and divides.

            In the state of Mato Grosso only three counts are cur by the limits of Amazonia. In those cases it only concerns extensive counts in which the line (as in the case of the Amazon-Paraguay divide) clearly separates areas which are already effectively settled from those that are almost completely unpopulated. In the state of Goiás, only two districts are cut by the boundary; and in the state of Maranhão it was possible to make use of the county boundaries in all cases.

            In this way, the description of the demarcation line is perfectly clear; to distinguish which of the political and administrative units (states, districts) will be included in the valorization plan.