A importância das hidrovias brasileiras como fator de força para a política marítima e a estratégia marítima brasileira: dificuldades e oportunidades do transporte hidroviário interior voltado para a região norte

Abstract

Arco Norte is growing in importance at a time, when it is needed an alternative route to transport agricultural production from the Center-West region of the country. The region's strategic location contributes to shortening travel between Brazil and its major trading partners, like China, USA and European continent. The region appears as a possible solution for the effective transportation of commodities that, before, were concentrated in the south and southeast axes, mainly in the ports of Santos and Paranaguá. Due to the increase in the volume of the cargo transported across the ports of Arco Norte, it is necessary to improve the operational use of in land waterway transport in the region. In this context, the waterway modal contributes, potentially, to multimodal logistics, not only because of this economic development, but also for the displacement of the Armed Forces, in case of emergency, and territorial defense crises. Therefore, better navigability conditions are required on the Amazon’s rivers, besides the modernization of the ports’ structures, which make up the waterway system. In addition, there is a range of problems that avoid the growth of inland waterway transport in the region, highlighting among them, lack of coordination, in actions between federal agencies linked to issues in the waterway sector. This theses general goal is to identify the paths for a better articulation between public agencies at the federal level, aiming to benefit the use of the waterway modal in the Arco Norte region, and the consequences for the Brazilian Navy. The chosen methodology was upon a descriptive documental research, through the inquiry of bibliographic sources, in addiction to conducting qualitative questionnaires on the subject. At the end, it was concluded that it is still necessary that the management of the transport sector remains centralized in the Ministry of Infrastructure, and that there must be a greater integration between the federal sectors, especially between the legislators and executing agencies, in the articulation of actions in favor of the inland waterway transport. Also as part of the conclusion, the author suggests that Brazilian Navy could continue as the main coordinator of the National Maritime Policy update the Maritime Mobilization Manual, and prepare an internal publication at a strategic level, which could include additional information about the Arco Norte waterways.