Local Perception of Environmental Change in a Semi-Arid Area of Northeast Brazil: A New Approach for the Use of Participatory Methods at the Level of Family Units

Abstract

The diversity of plant resources in the Brazilian semi-arid region is being compromised by practices related to agriculture, pastures, and forest harvesting, especially in areas containing Caatinga vegetation (xeric shrublands and thorn forests). The impact of these practices constitutes a series of complex factors involving local issues, creating a need for further scientific studies on the socialenvironmental dynamics of natural resource use. Through participatory methods, the present study analyzed people's representations about local environmental change processes in the Brazilian semi-arid region, taking into consideration local production systems, natural resources, and their importance. Environmental historical graphs were developed with nine local families to analyze landscape changes with regard to cultivated areas and pastures, and their relationship with the availability of native vegetation. Punctuation exercises were performed to observe the importance of each unit that supplied native and cultivated resources. The availability of native resources in the environment is subject to stability, as observed by a majority of the local families. The role of the production units (crops and pastures) was emphasized by most families in the study, especially because of the need for products for subsistence needs and income generation. The current decline of such practices is a consequence of an exodus of field workers and also relates to the conservation of native species that otherwise would have been deforested in favor of agricultural practices.

“I eat the manofê so it is not forgotten”: local perceptions and consumption of native wild edible plants from seasonal dry forests in Brazil

“…Convenience sampling was performed among heads of household who had been interviewed previously by other members of the Laboratory of Applied and Theoretical Ethnobiology (Portuguese acronym: LEA) [21,24,25,27-31]. The mention of at least 3 edible species was used as the selection criterion.…”

“…Farming is conducted mainly during the rainy season, and the main crops are monocultures of corn and beans, which are complemented by cattle and goat farming [24,25]. Products in excess of the families’ needs are sold in the weekly market in the center of Altinho, generating income for the community [25]. The scarcity of local jobs and the desire of youth to achieve higher income levels has led many young inhabitants to move to Recife or São Paulo in search of better job opportunities [25].…”

Water scarcity and oil palm expansion: social views and environmental processes

“…This includes both the assessment and the evaluation of information, which implies embedding the environmental context into individual experiences, imaginations, and memories (Schiffman 1982, Bell et al 2001). As such, the way in which individuals analyze the environment and environmental changes is influenced in particular by environmental knowledge and values, place attachment, interests and motivations, but also by the specific prevailing circumstances such as time or cause of environmental change (Hellbrück and Fischer 2003, Chokor et al 2004, Brown et al 2005, Sampaio Sieber et al 2011, Boelens 2014. Environmental perceptions thus have to be understood as context-related, dynamic, and discursively formed knowledge that is open to negotiation and change (Irwin 2001).…”

Resilience and adaptation in the use of medicinal plants with suspected anti-inflammatory activity in the Brazilian Northeast

“…As a basis for selecting respondents and plants for the present study, we used a database of the Laboratory of Applied Ethnobotany of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (Laboratório de Etnobotânica Aplicada da Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, LEA -UFRPE) built with data from prior research in the area (Araújo et al, 2008;Santos et al, 2009;Alencar et al, 2009Alencar et al, , 2010Sieber et al, 2010;Lins Neto et al, 2010). This database contains information on plants known and used for medicinal purposes, as cited by people over 18 years of age in the community.…”