Relações entre a sustentabilidade mineral e o desenvolvimento sustentável municipal: um estudo no Seridó Paraibano.

Abstract

The Seridó region in the state of Paraíba, Brazil, is an attractive region for mining activity because of its mineral reserves and their diversity of industrial minerals and gemstones. The main economic activities in most municipalities in this region is directly related to mining. However, despite the dependence of these municipalities on the mining, this activity does not generate development for these municipalities. In this context, the objective of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between mining sustainability and sustainable development of municipalities in the Seridó region Paraíba, Brazil. The evaluations considered the mining sustainability index (ISM) proposed by Viana (2012), which evaluates mining sustainability of operational units, and municipal sustainable development index (IDSM) proposed by Martins and Cândido (2008). The municipalities in the study region in which mining is the main economic activity were chosen for evaluation, based on the location quotient (LQ) Pedra Lavrada and Tenório in the eastern Seridó region, and Junco do Seridó and Várzea in the western Seridó region. The quantitative and qualitative analyses of the MSDI of the municipalities and ISM of the mining industries showed that the municipalities of Várzea (0.4783 ISM and 0.4972 IDSM), Pedra Lavrada (0.3913 ISM and 0.4557 IDSM), Junco do Seridó (0.2817 ISM and 0.4251 IDSM), and Tenório (0.2753 ISM and 0.3573 IDSM) were in a state of alert regarding these indicators, contributing to the low indices of the region. The weighted ISM of 0.3566 and IDSM of 0.4338 denote a state of alert. Thus, the low ISM contributes to the low IDSM, and the mining activity in the Seridó region is in a state of alert. Despite the small contribution of the mining activity to the region, the municipalities in this region present a great dependence on this activity. The contributions of the mining activity to the region are limited: economically, the main beneficiaries are the mining companies; socially, they do not generate decent employment and income, resulting in underemployment of local workers, in addition to negative implications to the worker's health; and, environmentally, they cause significant environmental impacts, which are inherent to the activity. Therefore, these factors affect the sustainability of the municipalities and put them in a state of alert.