The large development projects in the Amazon are agents of transformation in these
territories until the present moment. In the municipality of Cachoeira do Piriá, in the
northeast of Pará, several projects such as mining and the construction of BR 316,
boosted the formation of a critical area, in a disorderly occupation process, where
illegal mining was structured as the main economic activity in the region and
advancedaround the urban core and among vulnerable social groups, changing their
territories and their quality of life. The problem of this study, therefore, is to
understand how goldexploration produces socio-environmental risks in the territory
of Cachoeira do Piriá- PA. This study brings a political ecology approach as a
theoretical contribution and asmain authors Acselrad (2004), Martinez (2007) and
Porto (2012). The research is a case study and has a qualitative nature with
methodological procedures anchoredin bibliographic and documentary research,
through access to secondary data and public websites. The field study carried out
took place in gold exploration areas locatedin rural communities and in the urban
core, and in relation to the use of geotechnologies, maps of land use, location and
heat maps (Kernel) were analyzed. The results demonstrated that the territory
presents systematic socio-environmental risks that are mainly concentrated among
vulnerable social groups, among which peripheral communities, quilombolas,
fishermen and family farmers. The disproportionality in the distribution of risks over
the territory is characterized by high potential among social groups, with emphasis
on security risk, water risk, pedologicalrisk, health risk, and risk to the way of life,
which are intensified by the absence of actions from public power and the fragility of
legislation aimed at gold mining. Finally, a booklet on the socio-environmental risks
of mining was created as a research product, as an information instrument to
contribute to knowledge and resistance among vulnerable social groups, as well as
assisting public authorities in monitoring and managing socio-environmental risks.
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