Agroecosystems, Landscapes and Knowledge of Family Farmers from Aramaçá Island, Upper Solimões Region, Amazon

Abstract

The family farmer’s knowledge about floodplains agroecosystems dynamics is part of agrobiodiversity conservation cognitive strategies. This is because the conservation in floodplains is conditioned by the ecophysiological adaptation to the period and flood gradient of the agricultural lands and by the transformations promoted in the environment by the waters pulse. The aim of this study was to understand the cognitive strategies expressed in the organized meaning of agroecosystems by local knowledge, related to the geomorphological dynamics of the Arama ç á Island, Amazonas, Brazil. In this research, the Case Study and Ethnoecology were adopted as approach, taking the systemic complexity paradigm as a theoretical framework. To do so, it was necessary to establish a dialogue with the local knowledge through multitemporal analyses of satellite images, historical series of hydrological data, as well as cartographic documents of the locality. The floodplains amphibian mark, as a living organism in permanent autopoietic process, seems to be imprinted in the family farmer’s knowledge. In order to live in the floodplains and of floodplains, it is necessary, above all, to develop a cognitive ability capable of understanding not only the rivers action on the lands, but also that of the lands on the rivers as well. Therefore, the geomorphological dynamics in the spaces managed by the family farmers impose on them, risks and uncertainties, demanding from them strategies that allow knowing and dealing with this complexity.