The Territorial-Environmental Perception in Fishing Zones (Amazon Region, Brazil)

Abstract

Geography was always concerned with the study of the relationship between social groups and the environment in which they interact as natural resources for their survival. This relationship was always intertwined by power determinations in the organization of forms of appropriation of natural resources, deriving different types of territorial assets. These territorial assets demonstrate a variety of actors, involved in a certain territory and materializing different actions for the appropriation of space and use of the natural resources. In the case of fishing this is not different, since we verified that fishing practice is witnessed by a variety of actors, fishermen, fishing community, fishing association, fishing zone and regulatory agencies. Each of these actors relate in specific ways to the fishing spaces and material specific actions to define the territory, adopting territorial assets and a diversity of perceptions which sometimes conflict with each other. This study is part of a research which, through direct field research, aims at accomplishing an analysis of the way of life of the fishermen of the Colony of Fishermen Z 62, headquartered in the municipal district of Breves, state of Pará, and how they acknowledge their territory, in the way they interact with other actors who use the same territory in other ways unrelated to fishing.

The Territorial-Environmental Perception in Fishing Zones (Amazon Region, Brazil)

“…These peculiarities make the fishermen are obliged, because they need it for subsistence, to become knowledgeable of the water environment from which extract their sustenance. Studies on artisanal fisheries allow the generation of more information about the importance of livelihoods of fishermen [12]. In the specific case here of the fishermen of the river Ituquara in the Amazon estuary which noted the way they territorialize in space in which they operate and who appear to be very different from fishermen operating in the Brazilian coastal area.…”

“…In this sense, based on the field surveys to identify fishing areas of the River Ituquara [12], one can perceive some territorial peculiarities that highlight fishing resources and that distinguish them from terrestrial resources that:…”