Knowledge integration in the management of natural resources: the case of Ipeúna, SP city

Author(s)

Mariana Piva da Silva

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Piracicaba.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC)
• Defense date: 2011-10-11

Examining board members

Silvia Maria Guerra Molina; Antonio Ribeiro de Almeida Junior; Angela Antonia Kageyama

• Advisor: Silvia Maria Guerra Molina

Abstract

Human actions have been recognized as the main driving forces of environmental impacts. Among these actions, the land use/cover changes have been contributed significantly to the degradation and/or conservation of ecosystems and natural resources. Due to the need of assuring an ecologically balanced environment to the human population, the public environmental management (PEM) has been developing increasingly in Brazil. The PEM has often used technical and scientific knowledge to build forms of environmental management. Among these technical and scientific knowledge, we highlight those related to Landscape Ecology, with several researches performed in the region where the present study took place (Corumbataí River Basin, SP). However, by relying only on this kind of knowledge the PEM could take apart another important form of environmental management (EM), the local environmental management (LEM). The LEM is the environmental management practiced daily by small farmers families and local people. The LEM concerns to the use of natural resources in order to achieve their social and cultural reproduction in a specific place. The LEM includes more or less market insertion and its impacts on the environment. When the PEM do not consider the LEM, the effectiveness of PEM can decrease and cause social and environmental conflicts. Therefore, in order to generate subsidies for coordinating LEM and PEM in Ipeúna, SP, this study had the following aims: to characterize the LEM practiced by farmers in Ipeúna, SP; to compare the decisions, mainly about the land use (and associated resources), taken in this management level (LEM) to the more common types of PEM in the small farmers routines; to verify if the PEM mentioned by the small farmers is based on principles of Landscape Ecology, and to compare their and the Landscape Ecology views about the process of forest fragmentation in Ipeúna, SP. The LEM practiced by farmers in Ipeúna, SP, was analyzed from a historical perspective. It was observed that the LEM has changed due to the process of agriculture industrialization in Brazil. Mainly economics aspects guided the small farmers land use decisions. The more frequent PEM forms in the daily life of small farmers were command and control type. This type of PEM was designed to large areas such as São Paulo and all over Brazil. Scientific knowledge played an important role in some parts of PEM elaboration, construction and application forms. None of the PEM identified by the small farmers have been developed considering the context and the LEM practiced in the area. About the Landscape Ecology, none of PEM forms mentioned by small farmers was developed based on its prescriptions. The view of the small farmers who integrated this research and of the Landscape Ecology related to the process of forest fragmentation showed complementarities. Such complementarities could be useful to the building of more consistent to the local reality and so, more effective to the environmental conservation and social equality. (AU)