Urbanização e transformação dos sistemas indígenas de manejo de recursos naturais: O caso do alto rio Negro (Brasil)

Abstract

We analyse the transformations in indigenous resource management due to urbanization and migratory flows in the Upper Rio Negro, Northwest Amazon. Data were obtained from ethnographic and agro-economic research, combined with a GIS analysis of population, land tenure and landscape distribution in the peri-urban zone of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, the main town of the region. Each indigenous community is associated with a traditional territory, within which are articulated many kinds of resource use rights, ranging from individual exclusive ownership to common property. In the peri-urban area, private ownership has become the main land-use right. Due to the increasing scarcity of available resources around São Gabriel, newly arrived indigenous families have to negotiate land-use rights within their large kinship networks and to resort to a multilocal strategy. This multilocal land-use system may be seen as an expression of the adaptation of traditional natural resources management.