Incêndios, degradação e restauração biocultural de florestas sociais na Reserva Extrativista Tapajós-Arapiuns, oeste do Pará

Abstract

The Amazon plays a central role in the conservation of terrestrial biodiversity, in the provision of ecosystem services of global relevance, such as climate regulation and is the habitat of thousands of traditional communities and indigenous populations. Despite its socio-environmental importance, human activities have caused extensive transformations in the Amazon rainforest and one of the biggest current concerns, in addition to deforestation (clear-cutting of the forest) is forest degradation caused by fire. This thesis addresses the theme of degradation caused by fires in social forests inhabited by indigenous communities of the Tapajós-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve, in the region of Santarém, west of Pará, considered one of the most vulnerable regions to fire in the Amazon region. The research evaluates the perception of indigenous communities about the degradation and changes in social forest conditions caused by forest fires, examines the effect of two consecutive fires (2015 and 2017) on the structure, composition and diversity of forest tree and palm species, and analyzes the possibility of building strategies to prevent future degradation and recover social forests by the biocultural approach that integrates research and traditional knowledge of the indigenous communities. The results showed that consecutive forest fires reduce the biomass of the vegetation and lead to taxonomic homogenization of the forest. Indigenous communities perceive the vulnerability of their territory to the occurrence of forest fires, particularly in times of severe drought. In addition, they recognize social, economic and environmental losses and are willing to act to control the advance of degradation and the recovery of the social forest. Finally, a research and action agenda focused on causes, impacts, management and mitigation of fires in social forests is proposed, which includes pilot initiatives for biocultural restoration, produced jointly with the communities. These initiatives should contain goals, approaches and technologies capable of empowering economically, socially and politically and integrating the action of indigenous communities, non-governmental organizations, public agencies, academia and research agencies and the public power in order to expand the approach to biocultural restoration related to forest fires in the Amazon and produce globally relevant knowledge and lessons.