The short-term impacts of development-induced displacement on wealth and subjective well-being in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Summary Displacement due to development projects such as dams, mines, and urban infrastructure often leads to livelihood decline among affected communities. The challenge, therefore, lies in implementing projects that achieve national or regional development goals while also generating positive social and economic outcomes for displaced populations. This paper uses a longitudinal, mixed-methods design to understand the short-term changes in wealth and subjective well-being of households displaced due to construction of the Belo Monte Dam in the Brazilian Amazon. The households were compensated by either cash or credit for their lost land and assets, and were then responsible for finding and purchasing new property. Using pre- and post-displacement household survey and semi-structured interview data, as well as data from a small comparison group, I find that wealth increased for the majority of the study population and that socioeconomic inequality decreased, as poorer households experienced greater improvements in housing conditions, assets, and property ownership. In addition, subjective well-being improved for most households, particularly among those who did not own land at baseline, those who gained assets such as vehicles, those who remained closer to the original study area, and those who remained in close proximity to other households from the study population. Moving to an urban destination was strongly associated with declines in well-being, as was moving far from family or friends. These results suggest that investing sufficient resources in a compensation-based resettlement program can benefit households displaced by large infrastructure projects in the short term, but additional data collection is needed after the completion of dam construction to determine whether these benefits are sustained over the longer term.

Debating dams: The World Commission on Dams 20 years on

“…Negative case studies predominate, but a few papers report positive social impacts, and when they do, they mostly focus on infrastructural aspects such as increased electricity production and improved flood control (Kirchherr, Pohlner, & Charles, ). A few case studies report positive social impacts of dams on resettlers and displaced communities (e.g., Randell, ; Wilmsen, ) or at least reduced negative impacts (e.g., Burrier, ). These are brought about by significant investments in compensation schemes and regional economic development by dam builders and national governments, the kinds of initiatives recommended by the WCD.…”

“…Such changes are also arguably a consequence of heightened global awareness of environmental and social issues in a post‐WCD world, even if it is evidently not possible to attribute this heightened awareness directly to the WCD's work. Researchers continue to stress the need for long‐term studies to confirm whether such positive impacts are sustainable or only temporary (Randell, ; Scudder, ; Wilmsen, ).…”

Forced Migration and Changing Livelihoods in the Brazilian Amazon

“…Despite the findings that monetary compensation alone is not sufficient to prevent impoverishment after displacement (Cernea ; Downing ; Fernandes Serra ), Randell () discovered that in the case of Belo Monte, monetary compensation enabled the majority of households to maintain or improve livelihoods in the first few years after migration. These findings suggest that if payments are large enough for households to replace lost property and assets at market value as well as invest in new assets, compensation may in fact enable households to improve their standards of living.…”

Understanding long-term livelihood resilience of resettled ethnic groups in the Yali Falls Dam basin, Central Highlands of Vietnam

“…However, previous DIDR studies and livelihood studies , Sayatham and Suhardiman, 2015, Souksavath and Nakayama, 2013, Scoones, 2009, Wilmsen et al, 2011a, Randell, 2016 have focused mainly on the short-term changes of resettlement and ignored the local dynamics relating to the livelihood reconstruction process. In this case, the research found longterm impoverishment of the resettled people because of the hydropower dam and agricultural development in the context of changing lifestyle of subsistence farmers and land tenure.…”