Territories of social-environmental management and health in the Amazônia

Abstract

Conservation Units (UCs) constitute strategic territorial domains for social and environmental
management in the Amazônia. In this study, we question how residents and managers of a UC define their sustainability territories, specifically, in health care. Field research was carried out in a community located in the Rio Negro Sustainable Development Reserve. For data collection, techniques such as interviews, field diary and direct observation were used. As a result, their empirical data show that a large proportion of families had a livelihood based on a family production unit, with an average monthly income below the minimum wage, and generated mainly in agriculture and fishing. Considering the living and health conditions in the reserve, managers and residents interviewed problematize the sustainable assumptions that define current
models of UC in the Amazônia, since they do not have strategic actions for the effective human and social development of their families. The notion of health in the Amazon is embedded in collective control over these territories, and if it is not broad enough to encompass them, it needs to be redefined.