Conhecimento ecológico, regras de uso e manejo local dos recursos naturais na pesca do alto-médio São Francisco, MG

Abstract

The use of nature by local communities is based in a set of knowledge, practices and believes, developed through human culture and historical experience with the environment. Small-scale commercial fishermen from Upper-Medium São Francisco River, object of this study, are influenced by the dynamics of the environment cycle and by the ecology and biology of fishery resources, maintaining a very close relationship with them, for developing new knowledge and understandings which can provide better conditions of survive. More than that, the small-scale fishermen have self-organized for planning and practicing local management of fishery resources, which include local rules or institutions which define the rights and duties in the access and use of resources. The study of local ecological knowledge and common property systems developed by these communities are the mainly goal of ethnoecology science and of researches in common property systems, which support them as alternatives to the traditional scientific ecology and management of natural resources. This research was carried out between 1999 and 2001 with 7 field trips of 15 days each. Open and structured interviews were carried out, complemented by direct observation of the fishing activity, and the collect of fishery yield. The small-scale fishermen of Upper-Medium São Francisco River have demonstrated to pursue a detailed comprehension about the ecology and biology of the aquatic system and its fishery resources, on which they have based their fishery practices and common property systems, expecting to guarantee efficiency with sustainability. These local ecological knowledge and practices can contribute to develop a new interdisciplinary scientific view about ecology and management, putting together scientific and local experiences to produce a better use of natural resources, for these and the next generations.