Lugar, recursos e saberes dos ribeirinhos do médio rio Cuiabá, Mato Grosso

Abstract

In this study we address the relationships and interactions in riverine communities, from the long-term observation of the riverine of the middle Cuiabá River in their quotidian and anchored for a closer look and a more detailed accompaniment in Bonsucesso, community located in the Várzea Grande city, State of Mato Grosso. This study had two objectives: The first one was to learn the ways of handling, the practical uses of ecosystem services, the living place, and biodiversity representations, to know the riverine communities, the relationships they establish with the ecosystem services, the perception and the knowledge that they build on the area where they develop their experiences. The research was qualitative, and during the fieldwork we contacted riverines, hearing their stories of life, to pursue the path of representations in the world and of the world of these social actors. We, also, could diagnose the current situation of riverine landscape of the Cuiabá River in its middle course. The second objective was to develop environmental education activities to mediate the approach of pedagogical practices and the experienced practices. Thus, we mediate the dialogue between structured and local knowledges, empowering teachers and community members in thematic workshops for dealing with the environmental problems perceived. We recorded the riverines perceptions of Cuiabá River, and their associated ecosystems, through reports of their experiences and observation in the living environment. We identified the principal sites of interaction with the ecosystem services, and the categories of biodiversity uses. We described procedures for obtaining production services and transformation processes in cultural services, mediated by traditional knowledge. The prospects for sustainability of the people on the riverbank are centered on the traditional knowledge, which are cultural services built over time from experience with the river and land, and biodiversity and social relations established on daily basis along the river. The riverine communities require many ecosystem services, and survived because they have developed cultural techniques for the maintenance of these services. In conclusion, keeping the communities along the river, assuring them the continuity of their practices, is a way to conserve ecosystem services.