Limites e possibilidades das políticas territoriais rurais no Rio Grande do Norte: uma análise à luz das experiências dos territórios Açu-Mossoró e Alto Oeste

Abstract

The territorial approach over the decades has been an important instrument for public policies, specially those concerned to rural development in Latin America and in Brazil. In our country from the year 2000, this process is deepened through the institutionalization of Pronat - Programa Nacional de Desenvolvimento Sustentável dos Territórios Rurais and PTC - Programa Territórios da Cidadania (PTC) which induced intermunicipal socio-productive arrangements aiming to reduce inequalities and promote economic dynamism. In addition to federal policies, some subnational spaces have institutionalized their own rural territorial development policies, with emphasis to Rio Grande do Norte, which, historically, has often resorted to financing from the World Bank to implement these actions. The last chapter of this relationship occurred with the financing of the Projeto Integrado de Desenvolvimento Sustentável do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte (Projeto Governo Cidadão), in 2013, which seeks to reverse the state's low dynamism scenario through a multisectoral strategy. However, which would be the boundaries and the possibilities of these rural territorial policies implemented in Rio Grande do Norte by federal and state governments? Therefore, our general goal was to analyze the experience of the territories called “potiguares” (from Rio Grande do Norte) with the execution of these policies as well to discuss the conditions for promoting rural territorial development in this state. For that, we took as references the territories called Açu-Mossoró and Alto Oeste. We built the hypothesis that in depressed realities, the conditions for territorial development as restricted and this makes more difficult to achieve the policies’ objectives of the policies and it demands a more effective action of the State. This was a comparative, qualitative, descriptive and explanatory research, with a bibliographic and documentary delineation. We used secondary and primary data, with semi structured interviews to the members of the mentioned policies, focus groups and simple and participant observations. Despite some detected possibilities, the experience of both territories with rural territorial policies suggest significant limits: at the federal level we can point out low participation of public and private actors in the Collegiate, power relationship and reduced social capital. These cutouts did not favor the creation of a space for concertation and problems related to the projects financed. At the state level, besides these questions, stands out the complex institutional arrangement, which has hampered the progress of actions, as well as directives that reinforce the logic of the endogenous and autonomous development of the World Bank. We concluded that Rio Grande do Norte, in general, has suffered significant restrictions to incorporate the territorial approach, provoking a set of actions to mitigate this difficulty. In addition, despite the problems found in the two analyzed territories, we understood that the territorial approach presents itself as a relevant strategy in the context of development. Then, it presupposes that the national State inclines at each level of the different scales, interconnecting them in a national development project. It also requires the construction of territorial pacts between the State and civil society.