A gestão participativa em áreas sobrepostas de unidade de conservação e terra indígena: a situação dos Potiguara na Paraíba

Abstract

Social participation in the planning and execution of indigenous territorial and environmental management is essential for participatory management in overlapping areas: territories that are Conservation Unit (CU) and also Indigenous Land (IL), simultaneously. However, although this participation is established in the legal norms in force, it is still a challenge due to conflicting and divergent interests of the social actors, environmental managers, indigenist body, and the indigenous people. In this perspective, the general objective of this study was to analyze the factors that impede the accomplishment of the participatory management in the following overlapped areas: the Potiguara and Potiguara Montemor IL with the Área de Proteção Ambiental da Barra (APA) do Rio Mamanguape and Área de Relevante Interesse Ecológico (ARIE) Manguezais da Foz do Rio Mamanguape in Paraíba. This is an ethnographic research, with semi-structured interviews and participant observation, documentary analysis, social cartography with life maps, and quantitative analysis with the application of questionnaires during the first Potiguara TMP. From the results, it was observed that the correlation of political and economic forces in the context of socioenvironmental conflicts leads to weak effectiveness in the participation of the Potiguara in the territorial management of the overlapping area. The limiting factors of participatory management identified in this process were: the indifference of the environmental body, manager of the CU, towards the indigenous people; economic and political interests; nondiscursive mediations which make communication between environmental bodies and indigenous groups unfeasible. Finally, the data show the indigenous empowerment in the process of elaborating the TMP, with the support of the Interdisciplinary Group of Research, Culture, Society, and Environment of the UFPB, and it is suggested that the positive right of the State should not be used authoritatively towards traditional communities, and should respect the juridical pluralism of indigenous people and their well-living.