Conflitos ambientais na Bacia Hidrográfica Piancó-Piranhas-Açu: contradições entre a legislação ambiental e o uso efetivo dos recursos naturais entre agricultores familiares.

Abstract

The use of land at the river banks by family farmers in “Nordeste” semi-arid region due to the scarcity of land suitable for cultivation/breeding generates environmental impacts that have resulted in multidisciplinary studies that seek to interpret the causes and consequences of the use of these areas, possible solutions to minimize the negative effects of this type of exploitation. In this context, the objective of this study was to analyze the contradictory relationships (understood as environmental conflicts) that occur between the productive activities of the family farmers and the environmental protection policies in the riverside communities of the Piancó-Piranhas-Açu drainage basin, located in the section of the municipality of Pombal - PB. Based on of IBGE/SIDRA secondary data, in-situ visits and semistructured interviews, this work aims to identify the agricultural practices of family farmers and whether they comply with and understand environmental legislation in the which refers to the protect areas - “Área de Preservação Permanente (APP's)” and “Reserva Legal (RL's)” - as a protection and preservation instrument of nature. To interpret this data, we used the Political Ecology approach to understand how different discourses and practices are legitimized and institutionalized by different groups placed in an arena of power relations.