Inferência geográfica para delimitação de corredores ecológicos: um estudo de caso para a Mata Atlântica do município de Tibau do Sul/RN

The Atlantic Forest biome occupies much of the Atlantic coast of Brazil, in addition to portions of Paraguay and Argentina. Due mainly to its biodiversity which falls in the group of global hotspots, i.e., areas that have high priority for conservation. Although currently there are some available devices that assist in their protection in the course of the history of occupation and exploitation of the Brazilian territory, this biome has gone, and is still going through, an intense process of devastation, caused mainly by the pressure from economic activities, culminating in a significant reduction of its area and consequent fragmentation of the landscape, which brings with hosts a series of problems at various scales and aspects. As in most municipalities included in the reach area of the biome, the situation of forest fragmentation in Tibau do Sul / RN is quite critical, reflecting on a truly diverse landscape with broad typology of land uses. Among the alternatives aimed at the conservation of this biome include the creation of protected areas and the creation of ecological corridors, the latter being more efficient by connecting the remaining forests, increasing landscape connectivity, providing significant gains in relation to biodiversity. However, a major problem on implementation of Ecological Corridors projects is related to the selection of areas for this purpose, in this sense Geography can provide important contributions through the integrated study of landscape in the light of the geosystemic approach and the use of Geographical Information System (GIS) in order to permit assessment of reality having as a base the integration of ecological, biological and man-made aspects. Thus, this research aims to indicate potential areas and propose scenarios delimitation of Ecological Corridors in the municipality of Tibau do Sul / RN through Geographic Inference techniques in GIS platform. Therefore, the methodology adopted is based on the Geosystemic approach. From these elements were created 4 models to indicate potential areas for implementation of Ecological Corridors from the environmental perspective (potential erosion), socioeconomic (cover and land prices), legislative (areas protected by environmental legislation) and integrated (combination of environmental factors, socioeconomic and legislative), which in turn served as a basis for proposing scenarios aimed at this purpose. The results showed that all models can be quite useful in indicating potential areas for the establishment of ecological corridors, especially when based on an integrated approach between environmental and anthropogenic. The Corridors delimitation proposes shown may perform duties beyond the establishment of connectivity between fragments, since they also may have usefulness in controlling erosion and protecting fragile environments. Among the models developed, the integrated constituted itself as the best option because it enabled the interconnection of a larger number of fragments from a better use of the potentialities present in the landscape

Movimento de borboletas frugívoras e conectividade funcional em uma paisagem de Mata Atlântica

An organisms movement within and between habitats is an essential trait of life history, one that shapes population dynamics, communities and ecosystems in space and time. Since the ability to perceive and react to specific conditions varies greatly between organisms, different movement patterns are generated. These, in turn, will reflect the way species persist in the original habitat and surrounding patches. This study evaluated patterns of movement of frugivorous butterflies in order to estimate the connectivity of a landscape mosaic in an area of Atlantic Forest. For this purpose, we used the capture-mark-recapture method on butterflies trapped with fermented fruit bait in three distinct habitats. The first represents a typical Atlantic forest fragment, while the other two represent man-made matrix habitats. One contains a coconut plantation and the other a plantation of the exotic Acacia mangium species. Five traps were randomly placed in each landscape unit in areas of 40 x 40m. Using recapture data and relating it to distance between captures and habitat structure, I found that movement frequencies, both within and between landscape units were different for the analyzed species, suggesting that they do not interpret and react to the landscape in the same way. Thus this study was able to measure landscape functional connectivity. For most species, the exchange between forest and coconut plantations occurred with low frequency compared to exchanges between the forest and acacia plantations, which share more structural similarities. This seems to indicate that a matrix that is more similar to patches of native vegetation can shelter species, permit their movement and, consequently, contribute to the landscape connectivity

A paisagem da Mata Atlântica do estado do Rio Grande do Norte: remanescentes, configuração espacial e disponibilidade de habitat

The Atlantic Forest in Rio Grande do Norte (RN) is included in Pernambuco biogeographic sub-region and it is composed by Semi-deciduous Forest, deciduous Forest, Mangrove and Restinga. We assessed the conservation status of Atlantic Forest in the RN through remnants mapping using high resolution satellite images and landscape ecology approaches. We evaluated if there is difference between the north and south coastal regions considering their natural a historical land use differences. We also assessed the influence of the small remnants on landscape cover and configuration. The proportion of the original biome area with remnants larger than 3 hectares is 15.60% for the official governmental limit and is 16.60% for the alternative limit (SNE, 2002). This remnants proportion varies between 0.56 and 46.52% in the hydrographic basins. 89.70% of the remnants are smaller than 50 hectares. Only 6.00% of the remnants are greater than 100 hectares, and these remnants are responsible by 65% of remaining area. The patches with smaller area influence all calculated metrics. The south coastal hydrographic basins have higher percentage of coverage of remnants, larger patch densities and fragments with larger areas than north coastal hydrographic basins. The diffuse drainage basins of the southern coastal have the highest percentage of coverage with remnants. 18.28% and 10% of the biome area are protected by reserves, according to the official governmental and alternative limits respectively. The reserves are mainly of sustainable use (IUCN V-VI). Therefore, the Atlantic Forest in Rio Grande do Norte is in critical situation, with low proportion of remaining area and high fragmentation level. It’s indispensable to biome conservation keep all the remaining area, especially the large remnants, and restore areas to increase remnants proportion and to increase landscape connectivity

Uma cidade em transformação: a influência da atividade do crediário nas mudanças da paisagem urbana de Tenente Ananias-RN

Studies on the urban landscape and on the changes of the urban space are relevant, since they reveal the economic dynamics and the way of life in the cities. Research on small towns, in particular, can display particular aspects and by so doing broaden the comprehension of this theme. The purpose of this research is to analyze the changes in the urban landscape and in the way of life of the inhabitants of the town of Tenente Ananias-RN that have been taking place since the 1990s up to the present (2013) and which result mainly from the commercial activity of crediário. The study is, therefore, a reflection on the impact of crediário economy on the urban landscape and on the way of life of a small town located in the hinterland of the State of Rio Grande do Norte. For this reason, it was necessary to study the landscape and the way of life found in Tenente Ananias in two moments: a) before the rise of the crediário, a period of time ranging from the town‟s initial emergence until the beginning of the 1990s; b) during the progress of crediário activity, from the beginning of the 1990s, when it starts, up to the present (2013). For this research, primary data (interviews, local survey visits) and secondary data (books, articles, reports, census data) were used. As a result of this study, it was possible to conclude that crediário plays a fundamental role for the explanation of the changes taking place in Tenente Ananias-RN, especially in the urban landscape and in the way of life of people. We have attempted, through this research, to contribute to the studies of a historical, social and economic process related to the urban landscape and space of a small town in the State of Rio Grande do Norte

Paisagem, um patrimônio esquecido: subsídios para a construção de uma metodologia de valoração e proteção do cenário natural litorâneo

The so-called "residential tourism" came to intensify the previous occupation of the coastal zones, characterized by traditional beach houses, and brought significant consequences for their spatial configuration, and especially for its scenic value of the landscape. Although there is the intention to regulate the activities of enterprising groups by some legal instruments to control the use and occupation of land, and to contain some negative effects, the actions of government are still inefficient in trying to follow the implications on the landscape from the accelerated growth of the real estate and touristic sectors. Supported in the speech of economic development and income generation, public managers prioritize areas to attract tourists to the detriment of preserving important physical attributes of the natural environment that contribute significantly to the quality of life. The result can be noticed in the use of natural elements as one of the major components in the land valorization, and in the immediate attraction of investors and enterprising. Therefore, the objective of this work is to contribute to the debate on the landscape preservation a little detailed thematic in view of their relevance in the current context - by indicating subsidies to the creation of a methodology for the evaluation and protection of coastal zones that may assist the government in creating new instruments, and better prepare it in control of the occupation of these areas. For such, was followed two ways to analysis: the indirect method and the direct method. The first is grounded in the evaluation of landscape attributes, which is based on the work of Raquel Tardin (2008) and Eduardo Cuesta, Encarnación Algarra and Isabel Pastor (2001). The second, based on the research of Leticia and Carlos Hardt (2010) and on the concepts of phenomenology - expressed by Antonio Christofoletti (1985) and Yi-Fu Tuan (1983) - considers the population perspective on the quality of the natural scenery. Developed through cartographic materials, photographic collections and quantitative tables, this dissertation utilized as a case study the beaches of Barra de Tabatinga and Camurupim, located in the city of Nísia Floresta/RN. Despite already being sighted spaces of advanced stage of landscape degradation in these locations, areas of remarkable scenic value can still be found, what reinforce the urgency in adopting preservationists actions. The absence of laws focused on the management and protection of the landscape singularities associated with the inefficiency of the government to invigilate the land occupation in coastal zones, encourage the excessive action of the real estate-tourism, and consequently make the government the main responsible for the environmental and landscape impacts in these areas - by its omission or by their connivance. Therefore, the legislation permeates this entire process and constitutes itself as the most effective way to guarantee the right to the landscape to present and future generations. Are also pointed some important considerations to build a methodology, especially concerning possibilities of improvements and adaptations of its applicability in each case

Entre o cartão-postal e a cidade real: um estudo sobre paisagem e produção imobiliária em Natal/RN

Recent studies concerning the landscape have investigated the most important activities that contribute for its modification and have tried to better understand the society through the marks left by its quotidian. It is understood that singular landscapes constitute the cultural patrimonies of the cities, once they are part of the daily life of the citizens and are present in their social representations. Some contemporary authors defend the preservation of the natural and urban landscape trying, specially, to keep its importance for the local population. Natal is a city where the ambient qualities are well defined and known by the beauty of the area where it is located. Situated just between a river and the sea, the city grew following its geographic characteristics. The Potengi River, the Atlantic Ocean and the vast dunes ecosystem represented natural limits to the urban expansion; at the same time they have favored the development of a landscape pattern marked by the dialectic between the natural elements and the human interventions. However, this relationship changed after the intensification of the high rising development process that took place since the 1960s. The urban legislation tried to preserve the features of the local landscape delimiting Areas for Controlling Building High , destined to protect the scenic value of some parts of the city. On the other hand, the civil construction sector has made constant pressure in sense to abolish or to modify this legal instrument, aiming profits that have increased, in the 1990s, because of the consumption and the qualification of the urban space for tourist activities. It is necessary the raising of new elements to stimulate the quarrel about the landscape preservation, the process of the urban space production and the best way for the legislation implementation. This work tries to raise elements about the subject at local level, in sense to use Natal City experience to contribute for the formulation of indicators to raise the question about the lack of measure for subjective values, for example the cultural and affective value of the landscape. The natural elements inserted in the urban profile, represent strong visual references and supply identity to the town; they are part of the collective imaginary and are detached in the social context of the city. Then, why the preservation of the landscape, that estimates the improvement in the quality of life, is not enough to justify the controlling building high already previewed as part of Natal City Legislation? These questions send us to the approach of the landscape, as a community patrimony, alerting that some of its significant esthetics attributes must be preserved as a legacy for the future generations

Relações de poder, fragmentação e gestão do território no semi-árido nordestinho: um outro olhar sobre o Cariri paraibano

This study aims to analize the Cariri Paraibano territory, as a product of relations of power that were being established along its historic process of territory formation. In this process, the fragmentation and the territory management are fundamental elements to socioterritorial reality comprehension. The theoretical-conceptual basis is based on notions of territory, region, power and territory management, which are articulated to the opinions and empiric confirmations origined from interviews made with several social actions. They also were made photographical records and researches on books, newspapers and magazines, as well on other information sources related to the object of studying. Obtained data confirm the pressuposement on which the relations of dominations and the used methods by the power s owners in the region created a little fruitful political practice and little adequate to the process of active participation of the local population on the territory management, even being on disagreement with the new political-institutional mechanisms, which take to political-administrative more democratic and participative in the country

Estrutura genética populacional de Heliconius erato e Heliconius melpomene (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) em fragmentos de Mata Atlântica do Rio Grande do Norte

Extensive studies using molecular markers on butterflies have shown how a highly fragmented landscape may result in the reduction of gene flow among patches of habitat and, consequently, increase genetic differentiation among populations. However, little is known about Heliconius geographical structure and the effects of fragmentation on the connectivity of populations. Furthermore, findings on the effects of the population structure on the dynamics of mimicry evolution in Heliconius butterflies need to be tested in H. erato and H. melpomene specimens found in other locations other than Central and northern South Americas. For the present study, we had two motivations: (1) compare the population structure of H. erato and H. melpomene given the highly fragmented Brazil s Atlantic Forest habitat; and (2) studying population structure of co-mimics could give us insights into the dynamics of mimicry evolution. For this, we analysed the spatial structure and connectivity of eight populations of Heliconius butterflies, in a total of 137 H. erato specimens and 145 H. melpomene specimens, using nine microsatellites loci, 1144 AFLPs markers and 282 mitochondrial DNA sequences. In general, both species exhibited evidence of population subdivision but no isolation by distance indicating some extent of genetic differentiation among populations. Contrary to Kronforst & Gilbert s (2008) Costa Rican Heliconius, H. melpomene exhibited more genetic differentiation than H. erato based on nuclear markers. However, for mitochondrial DNA, H. erato populations showed more genetic differentiation than H. melpomene. Our results corroborate to other studies on Heliconius butterflies concerning the pronounced population subdivision and local genetic drift found in this genus. Nevertheless, the pattern of this differentiation varies significantly from the pattern found in studies conducted in Central America, where H. erato is generally more differentiated and structured than H. melpomene, based on nuclear markers. This different pattern may reflect different evolutionary histories of Heliconius species in Northeastern Brazil s Atlantic Forest

Análise dos remanescentes de mata atlântica do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte : uma perspectiva em alta resolução

The habitat loss and fragmentation are considered the main threats to the biodiversity. These threats operate at the landscape level, which drives the need to manage entire landscapes, not just its components. Although systematic monitoring of the Atlantic Forest biome has been ongoing since the late eighties, current data on forest fragmentation for the sub-region of Pernambuco are practically nonexistent. This study aimed to map out, with high spatial resolution, the remnants of Atlantic forest in Rio Grande do Norte, and conduct a landscape level analysis. The results show that the landscape is highly fragmented, where about 13.6% to 17% of biome remains. Most of the fragments is less than 10 ha, while a few fragments have area larger than 100 ha. Although the high degree of fragmentation, the average distance between fragments found was small (128 m), this estimate is lower than has been observed for the biome (1440m). There is evidence that abrupt changes in the quantification of landscape structure can occur when one observes the fragmentation at high spatial resolution. The results presented here can be used in management actions, in order to make the scenario more conducive to maintaining biodiversity.

A concepção de paisagem de professores de geografia em escolas do município de Parnamirim (RN)

This work is an exploratory study based on the principles of qualitative research aiming at the conception of landscape by Geography teachers in the city of Parnamirim (RN), as well as the pedagogical implications originated from such conceptions on the formation of students. In order to start our investigative process, we used, as theoretical and methodological reference, some principles of historical and dialectical materialism by Triviños (2007) and historical cultural approach of education by Freire (1987; 1996) e Vygotsky (1993; 2001; 2007), as well as the meaning of conception by Morin (1996) and Ferreira (2007) and the critical approach of geography by Moraes (2005), Santos (1988; 2004; 2006) and Silva (1989; 2010). Also, we used oral history as a research technique such as Moraes (2004), Bertaux (2010), Ferraroti (2010) and Nóvoa (2010) and semi-structured interviews as data collection tools. Our empirical reference is made of four teachers working in four different public schools in the city mentioned above, providing the needed data to start our research. The objective of such interviews is not the verification of the teachers‟ practice in class or outside them, but it highlights the transitoriness of the evidences mentioned in the research. Thus, we conclude that the conception of landscape mostly accepted by the teachers, once it is a process built along their lives and surrounded by their pedagogical practice, prioritizes the visual and morphological aspects and the sentimental livings related to the conception which is situated in a descriptive level of conception. Effectively, the pedagogical implications of these conceptions at school point to a materialization of geography teaching centered on the non-critical reproduction of school subjects which very little instigate the learners to process, via dialogicity, the re-significations of their essential and multiple attributes despite the several attempts and possibilities of some theoretical and methodological renovations on the application of geographical knowledge about landscape, expressed on the report of the interviewees

A invenção da Terra da Luz: história, literatura e paisagem (1875-1914)

Ce travail est un étude de cas qui analyse la construction litéraire du paysage du « Sertão» du Ceará entre la fin du siècle XIX et le début du siècle XX. Pour cela, quelques oeuvre simbole de la production litéraire du Ceará ont été sélectionnés, comme les textes qui suivent: O sertanejo (1875), de José Martiniano de Alencar; Os retirantes (1879), de José Carlos do Patrocínio; A fome (1890), de Rodolfo Marcos Teófilo; Luzia-Homem (1903), de Domingos Olímpio Braga Cavalcanti; Terra de sol: natureza e costumes do Norte (1912), de Gustavo Dodt Barroso et finalement, Aves de arribação (1914), de Antônio Sales. Ces oeuvres non seulement prend la nature comme personage, elles représentent aussi trois moments de la production litéraire du Ceará : romantique, réaliste et naturaliste. A invenção da Terra da Luz se rapporte à l idée d une littérature qui fait remarquer le paysage diurne du Sertão du Ceará, élaborée par ces hommes des lettres dans ses discours formidables, beaux et des matériaux qui viennent de ses rapports avec le monde naturel. Pour réaliser une tel entreprise, les idées de Edmund Burke et Gaston Bachelard se sont constitués en référence de cet étude. Et cette réflexion sur la description, la rêverie et l imagination marchent côte-à-côte au discours de ces littéreurs qui ont construits un espace simbolique spécifique : le sertão du Ceará. Comme ça, quelques thèmes deviennent canonique à la forme de penser, représenter et imaginer l espace du sertão du Ceará. De cette manière, le paysage est beaucoup plus que la contemplation, une fois qu elle est liée aussi à la rêverie poétique, à la mémoire et l imagination. C est de là l invention du paysage, car ces littéreurs n ont pas l accès au paysage purement naturel parce que ses perceptions et sensibilitées sur le monde du sertão ont été historiquement, c est-à-dire, dans un certain temps et espace

Patrimônio, Memória e Espaço: a construção da paisagem açucareira do Vale do Ceará-Mirim

This work aims to understand how the installation of sugar culture along the river Ceará-Mirim defined the spatial organization of the Valley, and thus setting the landscape. This space has begun to be defined only in the second half of the nineteenth century, when the sugarcane growth had atarted on land located on the banks of the river Ceará-Mirim. The passage of this period of great prosperity can be seen through the heritage material which is still presented in the region. Walking through the Valley, we found a considerable number of architectural buildings, many in ruins, linked to this historical moment. This perception, caused by these buildings, will take us on a trip to the past, back to a time characterized by great-houses, mills, sugarcane plantations, planters, slaves, etc. The references that lead us to consider the sugar mills located along the valley of Ceará Mirim as a patrimony, which carry an entire historical baggage, guide us to the first half of the twentieth century. During this period, the role of intellectuals from the Rio - Sao Paulo through the modernist movement will be decisive in the formation of a national identity. The heritage material identified along the valley of Ceará Mirim defined its current spatial organization, setting the landscape. But we must conceive this landscape into two ways: first, as a material representation of social practices carried out in this space, where social, cultural, economic and environmental aspects have interacted to their training; as well as a landscape that carries a whole historical baggage which was built throughout the twentieth century

Música dos espaços: paisagem sonora do Nordeste no movimento armorial

This work exams the presence of music in the imaginary constitution of spaces, taking as study s object part of the musical production of the Armorial Movement, officially casted in 1970 in the city of Recife, Pernambuco. From that so called, by the Armorial s discourse, the essence of the brazilian northeastern popular art , the armorialists has intended to make an art that express an idea of northeasternity and brazility . Tries to demonstrate how the music has exerted a basic function of condensation and spreading of the armorial aesthetics, auditorily delimiting the territory of Brazilian Northeastern and, at the same time, trying to impose a sonority to it. This work still analyses the elaboration of what would be a proper soundscape of the Northeastern and how this elaboration passes trough the desire of crystallization of an idealized space, perpetual, escape line of the characteristic modernizing and postmodernizing experience of the twentieth century, product, in turn, of the anxiety of conservation of the Northeastern as a shelter to the traditions that has been evidenced by the construction of an visibility and, also, an audibility to the so called northeastern universe. It analyses, too, the way as works the confrontation between the idea of a so called northeastern soundscape - sonorous events set taken as typical from the rural space - and a sonorous archives series produced since 1920 with the regionalist discourse, showing how was elaborated an armorial music that has intended to represent the brazilian Northeastern. It evidences how, to the elaboration of armorial music, it was managed elements from the European musical culture so called scholar. It argues that the utilization of, to the manufacture of the armorial thinking and aesthetics, of a European mimical capital, so called that way by Stephen Greenblat, was consequence of the intellectual leadership of the Movement, centered in the writer Ariano Suassuna. It argues that Suassuna, followed by the musicians and the artists of the Movement, has searched to evidence a genetic linking between what he has considered the Brazilian true popular art and the medieval Iberian culture. For in such a way, the music was taken as a formation element of the social imaginary and directed to verify a relationship between the Northeastern idealized by the Armorial and the music produced by the Movement. This work has searched, therefore, through the analysis of the armorial music, to study the possible confluences between music and the space that has produced it to, by this analysis, to think the complicity between music and history

Dinâmica da paisagem na Microbacia do Riacho Cajazeiras no semiárido potiguar

The semi-arid Northeast region are coming through changes since its formation causing changes in the landscape and increased degradation. The economic dynamics which was established at the Potiguar semiarid had for a long time settled in livestock, subsistence agriculture and cotton, however, these economies decline from the year 1970. Thus, the Potiguar spaces are undergoing by a process of space reordering marked by the growth of agricultural activities and the process of urbanization. In the Potiguar western region these changes weaken significantly transform the landscape. In these areas, the process of urbanization and agricultural activities have caused changes in the hinterland landscape changing the natural dynamics of the caatinga biome that has been subject to negative interference with the indiscriminate removal of vegetation. In this case, the specific study area of the watershed of Cajazeiras Creek located in the cities of Pau dos Ferros, Água Nova, Encanto and Rafael Fernandes, changes in the landscape has led to degradation and environmental fragility. From this perspective, the research objective is to assess the dynamics of the landscape of the watershed of Cajazeiras Creek, semiarid region of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, identifying the degrading factors, the most degraded areas and/or susceptible to degradation and environmental fragility. The research investigated the phenomena of light geosystems theory that emphasizes the integration of elements in shaping the landscape. During this reporting period, it was carried out exploratory and bibliographical research, and geoprocessing techniques to assess the social and environmental conditions of the researched area and its environmental fragility. To do so, first, it was made an multitemporal analisis on the basis of the years 1984, 1996 and 2009 demonstrating that the dynamics of use and land cover in the watershed of Cajazeiras Creek showed a significant change in the landscape, especially in the caatinga vegetation. This has been recovering in various areas of the watershed, especially in its upper course in the mountains of Bom Sera, in Encanto city. The analysis showed the need to develop policies and programs for the maintenance, restoration and preservation of the caatinga vegetation of the river network and of water bodies. In addition, it was identified the most degraded areas of the watershed, environmental fragility and potential emerging that take into account the landscape components such as climate, topography, geology, pedology, geomorphology and the use and occupation of the soil in an integrated manner. The results show that the landscape of the watershed has medium and high environmental fragility throughout its area, especially on the banks of the river network provided by the use and occupation of the soil in an inadequate way with the environmental conditions of the watershed

Alterações ambientais em Parelhas, Rio Grande do Norte: metais pesados em sedimentos de drenagens e percepção de comunidades rurais em relação a mudanças na paisagem

The conservation of natural resources is essential and constitutes the main subject of many researches, which characterize important aspects concerning the environmental alterations in the ground, water, landscape and socioeconomic information. This study aimed to investigate the anthropogenic input of heavy metals in the environment, in the area of the Parelhas dump site and in part of the Seridó River and to determine the concentration of heavy metals in the sediments. This can result in risk to the environment and human health. In addition, we sought to establish the socioeconomic profile of rural communities adjacent to Seridó River and to comprehend the perception of these dwellers about the changes in the places they live. The area of this study is located in the city of Parelhas/RN, in the centralsouthern part of the State, in the micro-region of the Oriental Seridó. This area comprehends the place where the dump site is located, next to RN 086, the Caldeirão dam, the Quintos river called by local citizens Caldeirão creek and part of Seridó river, perpetuated by the Boqueirão dam, which crosses the city and it includes the rural communities of Almas, Domingas, Sussuarana II and Colonos. Regarding the study with bottom sediments, the samples were collected and taken to the laboratory of geochemistry, where they were dried, sieved, weighted and submitted to weak acid attack. The analysis of heavy metals was held by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer - Flame AAS. We applied 23 closed questionnaires constituted by 38 questions to collect informations in the rural communities, oriented to establish the socioeconomic profile and the environmental perception of the participants. The participants were distributed in the communities of Almas (1), Domingas (2), Sussuarana II (10) and Colonos (10). Most of them presented similar socioeconomic profiles. They are from 45 to 60 years old and live in these localities for 20 to 30 years or more. The families are composed by 3 or 4 people; the agriculture is the main activity, livestock is the secondary and 48% of them earn the minimal wage. Regarding the environmental perception, the participants can realize some changes in vegetation, soil, water and landscape. People living longer in the community, and with more years of experience on the local reality can perceive the depletion of the soil, pastures and changes in the landscape. These changes portray how the place was previously and what it represents today. The perception of these changes, besides the environmental ones, includes others concerning the increasing number of dwellers in the last years, as well as the number of houses. The changes happened through activities developed by the dwellers over the years, including agricultural practices, livestock, grass planting and even the cultivation of cotton. The study provided the acquisition of new data about the environmental reality of this region. It can subsidize the definition of public policies that can be implemented from the perspective of conservation of water resources and of the coexistence and survival of man in the semi-arid