Abstract
Nature’s contributions to people (NCP) are increasingly being considered in decisions by policy-makers because of their relevance to the well-being of people. Learning the value of nature from the perception of communities can help to define priorities and to guide the development of public policies for environmental conservation. The objective of this study was to analyze the perception of the importance, benefits, and problems of NCP among residents of five rural communities, and their opinion about the protected areas of the municipality, considering their socioeconomic characteristics. The method consisted of conducting questionnaire-based, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with a sample of 214 randomly selected households in five rural communities of Parauapebas (Pará, Eastern Amazon). We used appropriate statistical tests for data analysis. The main results show that the communities were highly homogeneous and that 52% of the households had low income (below a minimum wage of USD 250). A high proportion of respondents gave the highest importance to all categories of NCP (2/3 of respondents for material, 3/4 for non-material, and 4/5 for regulating NCP). The most commonly mentioned benefits of NCP referred to subsistence or livelihood and quality of life (40% of total mentions). Environmental degradation problems were the most cited (38% of total mentions). Almost all respondents stated that they had a positive opinion about the protected areas of the municipality, despite underusing them. This study is relevant because it analyses, for the first time, the perceptions of NCP among residents of rural communities in the Eastern Amazon, an essential aspect for decision-and public policy-making.
Highlights
Protected areas of the tropical forest, directly and indirectly, contribute to the quality of life of human communities
A large expanse of the Amazon Forest is under protection, the rural development model implemented decades ago in the Brazilian Amazon has proved to be unsustainable, due to the replacement of natural areas by unprofitable pastures [2], which highlights the importance of protected areas and to shape a new model based on the sustainable use of nature
Rolling back various environmental protections, passing laws disregarding scientific knowledge and decreasing the power of socioenvironmental protection state agencies and corporations [4] may be accelerating the degradation of ecosystems in this biome and, compromising, even more, the quality of life of rural communities that depend more directly on the contributions provided by nature [5]
Summary
Protected areas of the tropical forest, directly and indirectly, contribute to the quality of life of human communities. Rolling back various environmental protections, passing laws disregarding scientific knowledge and decreasing the power of socioenvironmental protection state agencies and corporations [4] may be accelerating the degradation of ecosystems in this biome and, compromising, even more, the quality of life of rural communities that depend more directly on the contributions provided by nature [5]. Díaz et al [6] divide nature’s contributions to people (NCP) into three overlapping groups: (1) material, defined as substances, objects, and other natural elements; (2) regulating, representing functional and structural aspects which indirectly affect people’s lives; and, (3) non-material, which are the effects of nature on the subjective and psychological aspects that influence both individual and collective quality of life
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