Agroforestry systems as a strategy for collective action in a quilombola community in the eastern Amazon of Pará

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the relationship between collective action and agroforestry systems (AFS) for the productive occupation of land. The research was carried out in the São Manoel community in the Quilombola Territory of Jambuaçu, Moju, in the Amazon region of Pará. The methodology consisted of semi-structured interviews and observations with all 15 farmers who have AFS. The main results show that the AFS were implemented with collective action in collective effort in the secondary forest. An important differential was the choice of trees of interest that will remain in the area for the shading of perennial fruit trees seedlings (cocoa and cupuaçu). The experiment started with only 04 farmers in 2015 and already had 15 in 2019. The explanations for implementing AFS are: i) economic improvement through the diversification of products outside the harvest period of the native açaí, the main source of income for the community; ii) the consolidation of plantations for inheritance by the descendants; and iii) the desire to change the traditional agricultural production strategy through productive conservation. The general conclusion is that the collective action to supply the volume of work and the permanent climate of incentives were fundamental for the existence of individual AFS.