O extrativismo de castanha-do-brasil Bertholletia excelsa (Humbl. & Bonpl.) no rio Madeira, Rondônia: bases para uma gestão ambiental participativa

Abstract

The approaches of socio-ecological systems, resilience, and adaptive management suggest new forest governance arrangements that include the participation of marginalized rural people in territorial management. These approaches require efforts of scientists and managers to deal with local knowledge and with the social institutions that govern resource access and use by these people. This research was conducted in two communities of the Lower Madeira River (São Carlos and Cuniã) and the objectives were: (i) to characterize the Brazil nut Bertholletia excelsa (Humb. & Bonpl.) harvest based on harvest practices and local knowledge; (ii) to characterize the official land tenure and the customary property rights regimes in the harvest areas within and around the protected areas where co-management between government and local communities is officially assumed; (iii) to determine whether there are discrepancies between official land tenure and customary property rights regimes in those areas; and (iv) to verify the influence of customary property rights regimes on specie's management, and which regime or regime arrangements are more likely to promote the conservation of the harvest areas and the species. Qualitative and ethnographic methods were used with semi-structured and open-ended questionnaires, participatory observation, and mapping with Brazil nut harvesters from the two communities and other stakeholders. The data were interpreted from the perspective of ethnoecology ("etnoecologia abrangente"), human ecology and property rights regimes. The results suggest that: (i) the existing local knowledge in the region is extensive and driven by environmental feedbacks and therefore should be considered for adaptive comanagement; (ii) the organization and dynamics in the harvest areas are complex and differ from the official land tenure; (iii) the management practices that contribute to conservation of B. excelsa are more likely to remain in property regime arrangements between state and community, since these regimes have less conflicts and uncertainty in relation to harvest areas access and use.