SABOURIN, Eric.; DUQUE, Ghislaine.; DINIZ, Paulo Cesar Oliveira.; GRANCHAMP, Laurence.
Résumé:
In recent years, peasant communities and family farmers’ organisations have developed
new forms of collective action among smallholders in NorthEast Brazil. This paper
analyses the origins, emergence, and impact of these local and regional initiatives as well
as their relations with peasant social movements and with public institutions. These
smallholders groups constitute collective systems for the management of natural resources
(water, grazing, forest, seeds and bio-diversity) and/or the production of public assets
(information, training, access to innovation and to specific markets). In the Northeast,
particularly in the State of Paraíba, their experience has mobilised social and professional
networks among civil society and led to demands in hybrid forums for public recognition
or, better, public support from State institutions. The authors analyse the first lessons from,
and the limitations of, these new forms of interaction between peasant collective action
and State public action. This movement is related to the decentralisation process
underway in Brazil and the first inter-municipal initiatives. There is a risk that civil society
might substitute for the State in the performance of its functions; but the public obligations
of these collective stakeholders also ensure locally adapted responses to the complexity
and specificity of public policies. The new government has staked its programs on civil
society participation. But we can already observe some tensions between the government,
social movements and local politicians. In a political system with elections every
two years, it is difficult to maintain participatory processes that require longer periods for
concrete results.
