The New Frontier in Brazil: People, Progress and the Environment

Grade Level: 10 - 12

As needs for minerals and farm land mount, nations are turning to their few remaining, untapped regions. In Brazil, for example, the vast Amazon wilderness has for centuries defied exploration and development efforts. Scattered tribes lived there, completely separate from white culture and values and white diseases. But during the past several years, the Amazon barrier has been broken by the construction of the Transamazonian highway, which became a source of controversy in Brazil comparable to what the Alaskan pipeline has been for us.

Much of the road network has already been built but there are still unsettled questions about the construction of the northern east-west road and the future development of the region. Proponents -- government officials, construction companies, and multinational corporations and agribusiness interested in developing the Amazon -- point to the importance of (1) facilitating economic growth through the exploitation of mineral and other natural resources in the region; (2) opening up new lands to relieve population pressures in densely populated areas, and (3) establishing a communications network throughout the country in order to guarantee the security of the region. Critics argue that this project will erode the soil, destroy vegetation, and threaten indigenous cultures. Some have even predicted that the razing of the jungle will have a long-term effect on climate patterns in other, distant, parts of the world.

This case study is designed to help students deal with the environmental questions which are part of the larger controversy. The study describes the situation in the Amazon and discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of developing the region. Students are asked to evaluate the impact of a changing environment on a society and its culture, and to deal with the concept of "progress" as it is related to growth and to the preservation (or destruction) of the physical environment and indigenous cultures.

Goals

1. To recognize that a healthier environment depends on people making difficult choices and carefully measuring the consequences of those choices.
2. To understand that culture determines the variety of ways humans adapt to and alter their surroundings.

Learning Objectives

Students will develop:

Knowledge

• learn about the people and the physical environment in the Amazon region of Brazil;
• recognize the impact of a technological achievement, such as a road, on the social and physical environment.

Skills

• develop reading and reasoning skills in evaluating the changes development has brought to northern Brazil;
• use research and writing skills in discovering, recording, and analyzing parallel situations;

Awareness

• develop an appreciation for the integrity of a culture;
• consider their own value orientation regarding progress, growth, etc.

Answers and Possible Answers

1. Students should review the reading and list some of the specific ways that the Indians' way of life has changed (diseases, land conflicts, technology, etc.).
2. As tribal groups are moved from one location to another, families may get separated and relationships may break down after contact with alien settlers. Traditional tribal bonds may also be broken as former leaders lose their status and tribes are dispersed.
3. Benefits could accrue from the exploitation and export of the mineral resources that are supposed to lie in the Amazon region. And increased food production there could help feed the hungry in other parts of the nation, while improved communications could help the Indians. Students should also weigh the negative side, the destruction of the tribes' way of life and of the natural environment.
4. Each student should be encouraged to come to his or her own answer on this question, after evaluating the data.

This question involves students in thinking about their own values. It is important for them to consider what "progress" means to them and how they weigh the demands for economic growth, development, etc., against concern for the preservation of human and physical environments.

Distribute the student materials which consist of a reading, discussion questions and explorations.

Source: New Frontier in Brazil, Environmental Education, Interdependence: A Concept Approach, (Part D, 10-12 Handbook). Jayne Millar Wood and David C. King, eds. Center for Global Perspectives, New York, NY, 1976.