Social impacts of compulsory displacement by large dams in Brazil: a systematic review under the PRISMA recommendation

Abstract

Due to the conceptions, characteristics and qualification of the social impacts resulting from hydroelectric dams, the art state on the application and consequences of compensatory actions in peasant or riverside populations compulsorily relocated in Brazil is verified. Twenty studies were analyzed, selected by the PRISMA method. The social impacts caused by dams brought the interest of the scientific community in the last five years (2016-2020), focused on the Legal Amazon, allocating about 70% of the studies. They reported phenomena of economic destabilization, desocialization, deculturalization and deterritorialization of the population and the processes of physical and psychosocial diseases related to compulsory displacement. Compensatory reterritorialization actions are insufficient for the readjustment of daily life. The direct and indirect social impacts caused by development projects are confirmed, in the face of few and brief positive results. The new infrastructure projects must readjust their concepts respecting the different daily lives, population characteristics and territorial spaces, so that compensatory actions can favor a more sustainable development of the population, whether in the short or long term.