The central axis of this study was to analyze the influences of ecosystem services and the effects
of social and environmental externalities generated by large enterprises, especially the
multinationals Hydro Alunorte and Cargill Agrícola S. A, on the subsistence conditions and the
way of life of traditional communities riverbanks, in Baixo Tocantins. Seeking to understand
how the biosocioeconomic valuation of ecosystem services, estimated from the perception of
local social agents, can contribute to instrumentalize social struggles in defense of life and the
productive strengthening of these traditional communities whose means of survival are being
threatened/affected by large enterprises installed in the study area. The riverside communities
belonging to the Agroextractivist Settlement Projects - PAE Santo Afonso/Ilha do Xingu and
Santo Antônio II/Ilha do Capim, located in the floodplain ecosystem of the municipality of
Abaetetuba-Pa, are presented as a basic empirical example. The theoretical-analytical
instruments of the thesis are interdisciplinary, converging knowledge from the social sciences.
It is operationalized through the key categories of ecosystem services, territory and bio socioeconomic valuation. Having their meanings deepened from other categories that cross
them: distributive conflict, socio-environmental justice, power relations and autonomous
territoriality. Due to the strategic nature of data collection and analysis, the study excelled in
combining qualitative and quantitative research methods. The information was collected
through a documentary survey (government plans, Decrees, EIA/RIMA, Plans for the Use of
natural resources of PAE, Public Civil Action, Reports, Letters of Denouncement, Minutes,
etc.), plus the production of scientific knowledge, technical reports and others relevant to the
subject. At the same time, a survey of cartographic representations related to the rationales that
guide the use of natural resources and ecosystem services by the different agents that interact
in the territory was carried out. Field information took place from free interaction interviews,
complemented with semi-structured interviews and application of forms with semi-structured
questions with 80 riverside social agents and 10 key informants, including leaders of local social
movements and social organizations. In the data analysis, an ethnographic and descriptive
methodological strategy was used, given the centrality for the analysis of power in social
relations. The data obtained from the application of the forms were submitted to Factor Analysis
for the construction of indicators: Social, environmental and economic indicator (Isae);
Bioeconomic Productive Potential Indicator (Ippb), and; Political Action Indicator (Iap), which
represent them more precisely. In identifying the approximate values estimated for
socioeconomic losses, as well as the approximate value of the ecosystem and conservation products and services provided by the riverside communities of the PAE, the Integrated
Contingent Assessment Method (MIAC) was used, with the application of the methods of
Willingness to Pay (DAP) and Willingness to Receive (DAR), based on Isae, Ippb, Iap indicators;
economic (Rfam) and social (Tml, Esc, Tfam). The main results showed that there is an inseparable
link between the way of life of traditional communities, their natural resources and healthy
ecosystem services in the SAPs. Riverside communities showed a high degree of perception
regarding the effects of social and environmental damage (negative externalities), which
radically interfere with their forms of existence, but which are hardly recognized and penalized.
The maximum annual values estimated for the willingness to pay for the preservation of
ecosystems (DAP) and the willingness to accept the substitutive implementation of ecosystems
(DAR) corresponded, respectively, to R$ 19.296.39 per family per year and R$ $59.333.42 per
family per year. It is concluded that the DAP model, with the greatest significance, expresses
the economic value of paying for ecosystem services for the continuity of the PAE' bio sociodiversity preservation. This is knowledge that can anchor the negotiations of local
communities in defense of their historical biosocial and economic heritage with the impositions
of large enterprises that threaten their territories of life, with the possibility of creating a
framework for the construction of new dynamics of bioeconomic development, with social
inclusion and environmental sustainability in these traditional territories.
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