Comunidades nativas e áreas de preservação: tensões entre políticas ambientais e o uso do território no Parque Nacional da Chapada Diamantina

Abstract

The present study deals with the socio-environmental conflicts resultant from territorial overlays between Conservation Units for Complete Protection, amongst these, National Parks, and territories traditionally occupied by native populations. Threatened with relocation, according to the direction of Brazilian environmental legislation, the recognition of these populations as “traditional” is a tool in the struggle to remain in their territories, given that the concept is recognized in national legislation and international treaties, dealing with social rights related to culture and the environment. By way of a case study of the Chapada Diamantina National Park (PNCD), the present research sought to understand the relation between the twenty-four communities located in its interior and the park management, identifying the convergences, divergences, conflicts, negotiations and forms of cooperation between practices of the traditional ways of life and the objectives of an environmental protection area. Therefore, the present research seeks to understand how the struggles for social justice and for the environmental preservation in Brazil, take place in the course of the re-democratization of the country and its adherence to transnational values. The main dilemma found refers to the possibility or not of the existence of a conciliatory policy between social and environmental interests in the Chapada Diamantina National Park, seeking to understand the way in which policy is being used and identifying its limitations and potential.