Versões e controvérsias sobre a criação de duas áreas protegidas no Amazonas

Abstract

This work presents the study carried out to understand the administrative processes of creation of two protected areas in the State of Amazonas. The first area is a conservation unit in the category of Sustainable Development Reserve, at the state level; the second area is the titling of a Quilombola Territory at the federal level. In common, the two protected areas have not yet been decreed, encompass traditional communities, possess abundance of natural resources and present other interests in different spheres. These two cases are representative of the complexity and difficulty of creating new protected areas. To assist in understanding the forces that acted to delay the establishment of these areas, a broad characterization of local and regional conjunctures and contexts was carried out. Documentary and content analysis was used to investigate the administrative processes. The common factors were: high anthropogenic pressure, inside and around the proposed areas, including international players; instruction fragility of the administrative processes and lack of information in the characterization of the areas. In one of the processes, there were political interference and bias in legal opinions, in which public agents privilege the individual right to the collective one and create demands without legal provision; in the other process, the probable greater autonomy of the officials and the acting of the “Ministério Público” (Public Prosecution Service) that guaranteed the collective rights. Finally, there is a lack of understanding of the role of protected areas, by the society in general, as promoters of sustainable development, especially from a social and economic perspective.