Do isolamento regional à globalização : contradições sobre o desenvolvimento do Extremo Sul da Bahia

• Ano de defesa: 2009
• Autor(a) principal: Cerqueira Neto, Sebastião Pinheiro Gonçalves de
• Orientador(a): Silva, Sylvio Carlos Bandeira de Mello e
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Sergipe
• Programa de Pós-Graduação: Pós-Graduação em Geografia
• País: BR
• Palavras-chave em Português: Extremo sul da Bahia; desenvolvimento regional; globalização
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Extreme south of Bahia; regional development; globalization
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::GEOGRAFIA
• Link de acesso: https://ri.ufs.br/handle/riufs/5478

The main purpose of this study is to offer a way to understand the geographic progression in the extreme south of Bahia, a region considered to be the historical center of Brasil, bearing in mind that the area was the point where the Portuguese first landed. After more than 500 years the region only recently has started to develop its economy together with the increase in its demographics. Until the end of the first half of the 1980 s the extreme south of Bahia was nothing but a poor outskirt in the state of Bahia which tried to become a cocoa producing region to supply the cocoa industry in the cities of Itabuna and Ilheus. Parallel to this administrative model adopted by the Bahia governors the region was reconfigured by crop farming and raising cattle, which brought about another interpretation in the Brazilian scenario: the extreme south of Bahia turned into an extension of the southeastern part of the country. Situated in a favorable geographic position the extreme south of Bahia is actually an area of economic development for the state and functions as a bridge connecting the Northeast regions to the Southeast regions of the country. The region possesses a greater territorial dimension than that of the state of Sergipe and even surpasses the size of some countries; therefore studying the extreme south of Bahia demands a great effort to understand wholly the diversity produced by nature and society in this region. Actually the extreme south of Bahia is characterized economically and environmentally by eucalyptus farming, although other activities have great relevance, activities such as tourism, raising cattle and coffee and sugar cane plantations. The latter has already reached proportions similar to the areas for eucalyptus farming. Together eucalyptus and sugar cane farming are constant motives for questioning weather there is a need for greater control of the areas reserved for farming. As one can see the conflicts with social movements and non-governmental organizations shall continue, because they are part of a conflict between economic development and environmental conservation combined with food production. One notices that the region grows in an irregular manner, where the municipalities that have a greater political influence and economy concentrate the majority of public and private resources, therefore leading to a preference in localism and not that of collectivism. This dynamic demonstrates that it is not the globalization phenomena that fragments areas, but the traditional behavior of politics not only in the state of Bahia but that of Brazil. The paradox is that even having explicitly an option for local developments there are also some internal discussions that propose the formation of another federal state for the extreme south of Bahia, which could be abatement for the Federalism Crisis in the region.