Perfil sócio-econômico e etnoconhecimento ictiológico de “piabeiros” do município de Barcelos, Amazonas

Abstract

The Amazon region presents one of the largest ichthyofaunistic diversity of freshwater in the world, and has artisanal fishing as one of the main economic activities. The Negro river basin is considered the largest area of extractive fishery for freshwater ornamental fish in Brazil, having more than half a century of existence and a traditional character, of fundamental importance for the populations bordering the Amazon. Due to the great lack of biological and ecological information of many tropical fish species, ethno-cytology studies have been developed, aimed at understanding the uses and meanings of fish for human populations. The objective of the present study was to describe the socioeconomic profile and the ethnoecological ethno-cognition of the "piabeiros" artisanal fishermen of the Municipality of Barcelos, addressing the aspects of the ornamental fishery, describing the target species, seasons, fishing environments, paraphernalia , capture techniques, main difficulties and problems in the activity, as well as biological information (feeding and reproduction) and ecological (behavior) of families (categories) of local ornamental fish. Semi-structured interviews with questionnaires were carried out with artisanal ornamental fishermen (N = 89) in urban and rural areas of the municipality of Barcelos during the period from January to April of 2016. Most of the interviewees were of the masculine gender, married civil status and low education level, with only elementary school incomplete. Ornamental fishing is the main source of income for families in the region, with monthly family income below a minimum wage. In total, 34 ornamental fish categories (ethnospecies) were cited by ornamental fishers, corresponding to 10 families, 25 genera and 7 orders. The main families cited were Characidae, Lebiasinidae, Gasteropelecidae, Cichlidae, Anostomidae, Osteoglossidae, Gymnotidae, Callichthyidae, Loricarridae and Potamotrygonidae. Many of the information cited by fishermen were in agreement with those described in the scientific literature for ornamental fish families in the region. This study demonstrated that the dynamics of ornamental fishing have changed in a short time and directly affect fishermen, in addition to the low age renewal with the participation of younger fishermen, threatening the transmission of ecological knowledge to future generations, besides the problems in the production chain. It was observed that fishermen from urban and rural areas showed a knowledge about the biological and ecological aspects of ornamental fish families (categories) in the region of the Middle Negro river, being able to describe issues related to behavior, eating habits and period of reproduction. The knowledge study of artisanal fishermen of ornamental fish will contribute through the generation of information about the ecology and biology of the families of local ornamental fish that can be used as secondary data for scientific research and construction of measures of use and management of fish resources, Promoting the sustainable development of the activity in the region of the Middle Negro river.