Anthropogenic Actions and Socioenvironmental Changes in Lake of Juá, Brazilian Amazonia

Abstract

The Amazonia rainforest has natural spaces that have undergone extensive and intense transformations, mainly to meet economic demands, camouflaged in biological and social needs. As one of the consequences of this process, the production and expansion of the urban space stand out. In this context, this research describes the historical, spatial, and temporal aspects of land use and occupation in the surroundings of Lake of Juá, located in the municipality of Santarém, west of the State of Pará, Brazil, in order to highlight the main changes in the landscape and socioenvironmental changes arising from this dynamic. The study was conducted based on photographic records, elaboration, and analysis of cartographic data, in addition to the perceptions of residents and fishermen located in the study area, which, together, contributed to the understanding of the historical and spatial changes that led to the current socioenvironmental transformations in the surroundings of the lake. The residents and local fishermen of Lake of Juá, through semi-structured interviews, listed several socioenvironmental overlapping problems that had many impacts on this lake ecosystem, such as deforestation, silting, contamination of water resources and, consequently, fishing resources, loss of biodiversity and conflict of interest. The degradation and decharacterization of the landscape around the lake has compromised the maintenance of this lake ecosystem, as significant and even irreversible transformations have been caused in the community and in the ecological environment, especially when taking into account the absence of public policies or their inefficiency.