Relocation and Resettlement in Ceará - Houston Advanced ...

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FRC, PAGE 21
due to the size and scale of their impacts, few people are aware of how other forms of
infrastructure development and urban renewal impact area populations. By treating the
populations that have received relatively little attention from planners and activists, we will better
represent the spectrum of contemporary relocation and resettlement work and provide important
information on cases and scenarios rarely studied.
The project will initially be binational, located in two large countries active in dam construction and
other forms of large-scale infrastructure development—Brazil and India. Local offices will be
established in each country that will gather information and co-ordinate regional, national, and
international activities. As the lessons learned process advances, we expect to incrementally
include other countries facing similar demographic, policy and planning scenarios. The process
will become more streamlined as initial drafts of the Citizens Guide are prepared, enabling
participants who join the process later to be quickly updated on the critical issues of debate and,
drawing on their populations’ varied experiences, to build off of them.
Brazil and India have been selected as the initial sites for this innovative project because both
countries have similar infrastructure development requirements and plans. Brazil and India have
been two of the most prolific dam building nations in the developing world. Despite differences in
culture, language, and income levels, these two countries share much in terms of their economic
and political structures. Both countries have histories of strong labour and social movements and
highly developed NGO sectors. They also share similar socio-economic problems in the arenas of
literacy, health, and rural development. These similarities and differences represent a great
opportunity for synergistic learning and knowledge transfer that would benefit project-affected
communities, NGOs and civil society, as well as planners and policy-makers.
Even if the project were to be restricted to either Brazil or India, great benefits would accrue. The
knowledge and networks would continue to be formed, only they would be somewhat smaller in
scope. The relevance and importance of the Citizens Guide would remain the same. In either
country, promoting participatory planning and decision making through this project would have a
great and positive impact on thousands of individual who face involuntary displacement in the
coming years.
Conclusions
In general, the management and execution of resettlement in Ceará has been satisfactory. The
State Government and project agencies have made a commitment to good, participatory
resettlement planning and followed through in good faith on that commitment. Project affected
community reactions to resettlement and towards government agencies and their personnel has,
by and large, been positive and encouraging. Few complaints were noted regarding the
compensation of acquired assets and none were egregious. In addition, the policy and quality of
resettlement is generally similar across the various projects—PROURB, Castanhão, and Pecem—
and the various agencies in charge of resettlement—SRH, SDU, and IDACE. A welcome change
in resettlement management in Ceará is that it has to a large extent moved away from cash
compensation in favour of land-based resettlement. The only exception is in the case of rural
PAPs whose assets total over R$12,000. We would recommend that in the near future, these
PAPs too will be provided with other forms of resettlement assistance.
The highlights of the success enjoyed by Cearense planners and policymakers are the innovative
participatory forums that they have created—the CARPAs and ISCAs and the Multiparticipatory
Groups of Castanhão and Pecem. These forums have proved to be efficient and effective in
creating two-way communications channels between the project agencies and the project-affected
communities. With minor modifications, as suggested in the First and Second Interim Reports and