Percepção dos agricultores sobre a importância das áreas de conservação e das práticas agroecológicas no semiárido.

Abstract

In recent decades, socio-environmental challenges, including in view of the seriousness and irreversibility of some impacts on the environment worldwide, the creation of environmental conservation units, legal reserve areas, environmental protection areas, are created to maintain ecosystems balanced. In this sense, this work aims to identify the environmental perception about the importance of an environmental conservation area and the dynamics of primary production, in a rural community living in an area bordering the Private Natural Heritage Reserve <Fazenda Almas= in a semi-arid region. The methodology used was descriptive and exploratory. The research was built, with information on agricultural and forestry practices around the farm, in the Serra Pelada community in PB, with 33 resident families. The interviewees are aged between 23 and 86 years. They are linked to community associations, own the land and use it for family farming activities. The family units cultivate in forest backyards, with the planting of temporary crops, fruit, forage and some tree species for the production of forage. As for fruit trees, Anacardium ocidentales L. and Spondias tuberosa L. extractive activities predominated. They develop the practice of putting the herd to feed on the cultural remains of temporary plantations. The level of understanding about the relationship with nature is part of the global vision, which recognizes the interdependence between human beings and nature. They recognize that the caatinga vegetation is degraded, they recognize the importance of preserving nature, that the Fazenda Almas RPPN improves their quality of life, but they also want the reserve area to have the potential to be used for agricultural and livestock cattle activities, they had difficulty in list which activities can be carried out within this reserve. The biggest difficulties they face are not related to the acceptance of this preservation area, but to the strong limitations of their agricultural practices, which result in low economic performance.