Valores e usos da natureza amazônica: O artesanato e o potencial conservacionista da entidade agroextrativista “Natureza & Arte” na Comunidade do Cafezal em Barcarena - Pará

Abstract

The present article approaches the handcraft practices developed in the “neighborhood” of Cafezal, in the municipality of Barcarena, State of Pará. An activity born due to the need of territorial memory and the original Amazonian knowledge preservation, connected to sociobiodiversity, which is being lost through the advances of “modernization” and corporate “development”, both carried on rural, riparian and forest areas. However, our problem is fixed on knowing: how the artisanal practice is beneficial the local environment and society? In order to answer the question an inventory of the social construction in Cafezal was performed; together with an evaluation of the extension of the impact on the areas of clay extraction and a diagnosis of the social (re)configurations, concerning the advance of artisanal work in the community. The methodology of research was guided by a participant survey, along with documental surveys, consultation to personal archives of the members of Cafezal community and the association of artisans as well as the observation of the productive chain in manufacturing the clay pieces. The research presents as main result the plurality of original-traditional Amazonian knowledge, which suffered or have been suffering changes or modify the landscape of the territory itself, that being of social contrasts or the ecosystem. For such, it is understood that the focus of discussions from the issues of political ecology is essential due to environmental rationality maintained in the locality, noticing the local validity of a “territory of artisans”.

Keywords: Conservation; Political Ecology; Environmental Rationality; Artisan Territory.