“A dedicação está no açaí”: a monocultura e seus efeitos na segurança alimentar em comunidades das ilhas de Abaetetuba-PA

Abstract

The present work studies the effects of the increase of açaí plantations in areas of floodplain domain in the Pará estuary. Specifically, it focuses on the insular part of the municipality of Abaetetuba, northeast of Pará, where the palm tree (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) dominates the landscape, replacing the original lowland vegetation. It starts with the following questions: what effects has the açaí monoculture had on the territories of the traditional peoples of the insular area of that municipality? Could these effects be causing food insecurity, since there is already a strong dependence on the consumption of products sold in the city, which were previously found locally? Would the new farming practices have altered the ecological relationships in the floodplain ecosystem? To answer these questions, the main objective was to analyze the effects of the açaí monoculture in the territories traditionally occupied in the insular area of the municipality of Abaetetuba. The specific objectives were: to relate the expanded use of cultivated areas with açaí trees and the food security of the social agents of the research; to identify physical changes in the study area linked to açaí monoculture practices, and finally, to verify which agents in the production chain are most affected in the commercialization process of this fruit. The research is qualitative in nature with an ethnographic contribution, in order to make a “new description” (ALMEIDA, 2018) based on dialogue with social agents directly involved in this system, through auto-cartography workshops of these territories. The work points out as one of the results, the change in the way of life, which joins that expressed in the form of large capital-intensive enterprises, which has transformed the floodplain into a disputed territory (ACSELRAD, 2013), whose greatest effect is the deterritorialization (HAESBAERT, 2004) of traditional peoples of the floodplain.