Ecosystem Services and Climate Change Polices in the Amazon

3. University Federal of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Abstract: The Amazon is a region of great importance on the agenda of climate change. In this sense, the actions of local communities who value the use of “standing forest” are fundamental to the construction of models of autonomous development and adaptation to this phenomenon. Based on this consideration, this work aims to include the valuation of ecosystem services in the debate on climate change based on Brazilian Amazonian experiences, with a focus on the collection of açaí in the state of Amapá. Methodologically, we start off with three conceptual procedures: we treat development as the freedom that people should have in order not to suffer substantial deprivation; we considered the territorial autonomy as fundamental for other manifestations of development to be introduced into environmental policies, such as the emergence of forest sustainability as an indicator; and finally, we treat the environment as a hybrid of nature and culture, which makes it possible to distance ourselves from the reductionist thinking that separates the social and the environmental. The results show the fragility of the chain in its local node; exposes the deficiency of public policies of incentives and recognition of non-timber forestry activity and, therefore, the emergence of new ways of thinking and phenomena such as climate change.