Gestão comunitária e individual dos recursos naturais nas várzeas do Baixo Tocantins: o caso do Projeto de Assentamento Agroextrativista (PAE) Ilha de Sumaúma em Igarapé Miri / PA

Abstract

This work is about rules related to the management of common resources by peasant communities in the Sumaúma Island, State of Pará, Brazil, before and after its land regularization through an Agroextractivist Settlement Project (Projeto de Assentamento Agroextrativista - PAE in Portuguese). It is known that the PAE aims to take into consideration the traditional communities’ historical claims, such as: an agrarian reform that guarantees not only the right to land to the peasants, but also respects their traditional way of life, and that has as principle combining the conservation of natural resources with the implementation of agro-extractive activities. This dissertation also analyses the history of natural resources management in the Lower Tocantins before and after the arrival of the Europeans, who colonized the region in the sixteenth century; the activities gradually established in this process; the influence of these activities on the forms of labor relations and the agricultural and extractive production of the current main products of the island. In addition, this dissertation describes the historical process in which social rules of coexistence among the inhabitants of the island are intertwined with rules for natural resources’ management. It was also analyzed the influence of the Catholic Church in the establishment of mechanisms to mediate the relationships among the peasants, including the rules and other institutional arrangements to manage natural resources collectively. In conclusion, despite the alleged concern of governmental agents in enhancing democracy and participation, respecting non-formal institutional arrangements developed by local people, the proposed plans for natural resource management for communities at PAE still has significant limitations: there are no provisions for when some rules are not accomplished and for the inclusion of new unplanned rules in the formal Plan for Natural Resources’ Use