A proteção do saber tradicional do ribeirinho da Ilha do Combú - Belém, Pará: a extração de óleo de andiroba como prática de existência cultural

Abstract

The intensification of economic, environmental, and socio-territorial pressures on the Amazon has increased the risks of misappropriation of traditional knowledge, highlighting the limitations of existing legal protection models. In this context, this study analyzes the traditional extraction of andiroba oil as a sociocultural practice of the riverside population of Combú Island, in Belém (Pará), examining its role in sustaining local ways of life amid contemporary territorial transformations. The research adopts a qualitative approach with ethnographic inspiration, based on bibliographic and documentary research, as well as fieldwork conducted in the communities of Igarapé do Combú and Igarapé do Piriquitaquara. Seven semi-structured interviews were carried out with residents, including women extractivists, artisans, and long-term inhabitants, in addition to field observation and documentation of everyday practices. The findings indicate that andiroba oil extraction constitutes a form of collective traditional knowledge, transmitted primarily by women and closely linked to memory, medicinal use, income generation, and sustainable relationships with the environment. This practice remains active despite transformations associated with tourism expansion, the introduction of new economic activities, and the reconfiguration of local ways of life, revealing strategies of cultural continuity and adaptation within the territory. Thus, the protection of such knowledge requires the articulation of cultural recognition, territorial protection, and the strengthening of community protagonism, in order to ensure the conditions for its social reproduction and intergenerational continuity in the Amazonian context.