Tourism, prawn farming, wind farms and other projects in indigenous territories: the struggle of indigenous peoples on the coast of Ceará for the demarcation of their lands

Abstract

This article is the result of research undertaken between 2007-2011 on Indigenous Lands where indigenous people are under the pressure of development projects, especially tourism, on the coast of Ceará state, Brazil. Infi eld workundertaken between 2013 and January 2015 in the Indigenous Land Aldeia Lagoa Encantada/Tremembé of Barra do Mundaú, research was made on prawn farms/wind farms in the same coastal zone. In the Northeast Region of Brazil, transformed by government interventions to promote international tourism, beach destinations are emerging. Faced with the impositions of projects based on public-private capital on the coast of Ceará, the indigenous peoples affected claim their territorial rights, and making ethnic claims as strategies of resistance to the occupation of their land.