Conservação de quelônios como processo educativo em comunidades ribeirinhas amazônicas

Abstract

The riverside communities of the Amazon are formed by a heterogeneous population, whose main members are the different indigenous ethnic groups that mixed with the whites, mainly Portuguese and Northeast who came to the Amazon region in the golden age of rubber. This population carries with it an invaluable cultural treasure on the survival, the use of the forest plants, the use of the land and the management of the natural resources, especially for this aquatic research of the Amazon basin. In this context, local participatory management appears to strengthen and articulate the technical / scientific and empirical knowledge on conservation for the use of Amazonian biodiversity, especially the chelonians. The Community Management of Quelônio (Pé-de-Pinha) Project, coordinated by the Federal University of Amazonas, which emerged 17 years ago in the communities of the Middle Amazon River and Juruá, with the objective of conserving the populations of chelonians in a participatory manner. The objective of this research was to analyze the conservation of chelonians as an educational process developed by the Pé-de-Pincha project, aiming at the sustainability of this community-based practice. The analysis of the information was generated by the Pé-de-Pincha Project, collected from the annual reports of the project, between 1999 and 2014 and also from a semi-structured questionnaire applied to 12 communities, eight communities with management of chelonians (CCMQ), two from each municipality (Santa Maria de Valéria and Sabina, Barreirinha: Piraí and São Paulo do Açú, Oriximiná: Ascenção and S. João, Santa Terra: Piraruacá and Jauaruna nucleus) and four communities with no management of chelonians (CSMQ), Parintins: NS of Nazaré do Zé Açú; Barreirinha: N. S. of Nazaré; Oriximiná: São Sebastião; Holy Land: Mouth of Piraruacá.a. We adopted the analytical approach of the processes involved in the conservation of the chelonians used by the project, emphasizing the variables that indicate knowledge exchange, benefits and gaps. Among the main results and considerations, the following stand out: a) the search of the scientific knowledge by the inhabitants as a way to combat the uncontrolled exploitation of the chelonians (Podocnemis expensa and P. unifilis); b) the participative-community management of the chelonians developed by the Pé-de-Pincha project, which involved local institutions such as cooperatives, schools, health posts and some prefectures; c) participatory processes aimed at collective learning about the environment and sustainable development. It was concluded that the communities perceived and recognized the influence of social participation that resulted in the increase of the population of chelonians, in the improvement of the coexistence of the families, in the greater involvement and valorization of the communities and in the strengthening of community organizations.