Environmental perception in traditional communities: a study in Soure Marine Extractive Reserve, Pará, Brazil

Abstract

Abstract The Soure Marine Extractive Reserve, located in the Marajó Archipelago, was created to protect its biodiversity and guarantee the sustainability of its ecosystems. Despite of it, local environmental problems have increased. In this sense, this study aimed to quantify the level of environmental perception, in four categories, of communities settled within this conservation unit, based on a score classification (from 1 to 10). To this end, questionnaires were created with the structure of a 5-point Likert scale and applied to the participants. The results were quantified and revealed high scores (above 9) in the four categories analyzed, indicating a high level of perception. Perception was associated with age, schooling and number of people in the household. As a high level of perception was found, it is recommended that the awareness-raising actions carried out by the managing body of the reserve be maintained in order to preserve this knowledge.