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CULTURAL IDENTITY AND RECOGNITION: TENSIONS BETWEEN

ENVIRONMENT POLICY AND TRADITIONAL POPULATIONSIDENTIDAD

RESUMO: This paper discusses the contradictions between the legal devices
that support environmental policies referring to the creation of Integral
Protection Conservation Units, whose emphasis is on different conflicts of
resistance, against the superposition of environmental and cultural rights.
Scenario contextualized from the creation of protected areas in the Amazon,
specifically the creation of the Rio Negro State Park (Amazonas), characterized
as strictly protected area, located in territory occupied by traditional populations,
which has seen the decline of their rights, constitutionally guaranteed, revealing
the contradictions between the plural realities and environmental policies.

Palavras-chave: Cultural plurality. Traditional communities. Rights. Public

policy.

Introduction

This theme is born of concern regarding the recognition of symbolic

relations, built from the man / nature relationship, manifested in the universe of
knowledge and traditional practices, now threatened by the implementation of
environmental policies on the creation of Integral Protection Conservation Units.
When considering the scope and complexity of the issue, it is, in the context
specificity of peoples and traditional communities in the Amazon, on the ability
or not these policies achieve their concrete plural realities. Problem involving
the existence of an express order in legal provisions that should meet the needs
that involve the recognition of the constituent identities of these populations,
characterized as having ethnic and collective identity, normatively guaranteed.
Both nationally and internationally, are precisely such devices, facing the
problem of recognition of its factual effectiveness. Since traditional values
historically constructed are included in the right protection level. However, there
is a weakness, a fine line between legal guarantees and public policy.
In this sense, the question is how is the relationship between politics and
the legal system in the context of the relationship between society and the
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environment in view of the recognition of identity, in view of the existing

asymmetries between speech traditions, secular present, and the letter of the
law. Despite the contradictions, it is important to note that laws were precisely
established with the objective of addressing the social struggles for recognition
of identity. Where a party to inquire about the discrepancy between recognizing
and deny rights.
It is, more specifically, the contradictions between legal underlined
devices that support policies concerning the creation of Integral Protection
Conservation Units and the notion of subject in an articulated right in the face of
self-determination of peoples and traditional communities, to portability ethnic
identity and collective. Scenario which express different conflicts of resistance in
the face of overlapping environmental rights in relation to cultural rights
involving the assets of material and immaterial nature. Which is therefore the
case of the creation of Integral Protection Conservation Units in the Amazon,
such as the creation in 1995 of the Rio Negro State Park, State of Amazonas,
northern Brazil, located in the area occupied by indigenous peoples and
communities Traditional.

The subject-world relations and the normative validity

The symbolic universes built by different social groups, in each case,

provide guidance to internally describe the corresponding aspects of their
practices and intersubjectively recognized expertise, and to be followed under
the rule of law. This is more specifically the subject of the world pictures that, as
such, constitute its knowledge systems. This perspective that should be
considered when the proposition of external standards that are to be valid.
The problem is the gap between the different meanings of the world built
by the subjects and what law prescribes, creating a void of evaluative content
referenced the very authenticity of the world constructed by these subjects
images. This gap can be translated, in the practical field, from the following
understanding described by Shiraishi Neto (2005):

In recent decades, many people and those social groups and collective ethnic
identity, organized in social movements, has been seeking to ensure and claim
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rights, which always were denied by the State (...). The Brazilian government has
consistently denied the existence of these social groups, to the extent that public
policies are thought so 'universal', leading to the establishment of the 'kingdom of a
single right', which has served more to 'delete' the differences than to guarantee
the right to differences. (SHIRAISHI NETO, 2005, p. 01).

The relationship between the construction of knowledge rooted in the

cultural tradition and the normativity can not do without an abstract conception
of subject and world. How exposes Castro (2002), this knowledge production
universe there are multiple dimensions, as those beyond the technical elements
since they embody the different symbolic expressions of the subjects who
organize their modus vivendi. Indeed, the restriction on cultural practices of
certain cultural communities must be because determinations restrictions on the
use of land and natural resources can interfere directly in the form of
organization of their modus vivendi. Framework that reflects the inconsistency
between the applicability and effectiveness of the legal rule and the plural reality
of different cultural communities.
In Brazil, it is unreasonable to assume that the Federal Constitution
provides protection for cultural expressions of different social and ethnic groups.
However, the collision between the reproduction of the identity of these groups
and the regulation of environmental law is interpreted with one of the main
reasons of conflicts regarding the overlapping rights. However, experience and
traditional knowledge have a close relationship with the forms of land use and
natural resources, and therefore should be analyzed observing in each case,
knowledge and practices culturally constructed.
The reproduction of cultural identity, constitutive of the subject world of
images that make up this rights overlay frame, should be the subject of
discussion in the context of joint management between the positions of power,
authority over the implementation of standards, and communities now directly
affected by public policies that focus directly on your modus vivendi. And it was
the scene marked by multiple otherness, the legal framework should talk to the
specific realities as plural considering this complex and multifaceted universe of
the world of images constructed by different social groups.

Invisibility of traditional populations to the regulatory base of identity

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Peoples and traditional communities in the Amazon region are marked by

a long historical process forward invisibility to public policies that should ensure
the maintenance of tangible and intangible assets. At the heart of this problem
lies a political context marked by divergent interests on the regulation of
traditionally occupied lands. Ensure the territory of these populations in the face
of their socio-cultural practices therefore became the target of different
mobilizations.
Following the interpretative line Almeida (2004), it is considered that
territoriality is one of the identifying factors, marked by a feeling of belonging to
space. This identification factor is the essential aspect that characterizes the
idea of a 'traditional population', which has a close relationship with the land use
and natural resources. However, the threat to their modus vivendi is constant.
Indeed, since the promulgation of the 1988 Constitution the socio-cultural
and environmental reality of the Amazon region began to be played by new
looks in the face of legal protection of tangible and intangible assets. In this
scenario, different social movements have emerged in order to claim the
protection of the collective interests of the peoples and traditional communities.
A necessary move against the neglect of the bodies of public authority, which
still retains its pleadings political interests to the economic interests of the
market.
The territorial law is a significant step forward, going beyond the reach of
the indigenous and maroon, other traditional peoples. Reality provided by the
Sustainable Development of National Policy of Traditional Peoples and
Communities, established by Decree N. 6,040 / 07:
o
Art. 3 Para os fins deste Decreto e do seu Anexo compreende-se
por: I - Povos e Comunidades Tradicionais: grupos culturalmente
diferenciados e que se reconhecem como tais, que possuem formas
próprias de organização social, que ocupam e usam territórios e
recursos naturais como condição para sua reprodução cultural, social,
religiosa, ancestral e econômica, utilizando conhecimentos, inovações
e práticas gerados e transmitidos pela tradição; II - Territórios
Tradicionais: os espaços necessários à reprodução cultural, social e
econômica dos povos e comunidades tradicionais, sejam eles
utilizados de forma permanente ou temporária, observado, no que diz
respeito aos povos indígenas e quilombolas, respectivamente, o que
dispõem os arts. 231 da Constituição e 68 do Ato das Disposições
Constitucionais Transitórias e demais regulamentações; e III -
Desenvolvimento Sustentável: o uso equilibrado dos recursos
naturais, voltado para a melhoria da qualidade de vida da presente
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geração, garantindo as mesmas possibilidades para as gerações

futuras. (BRASIL, 2007 – without translation).

Peoples and traditional communities are then to be recognized as

culturally distinct groups, which have unique ways of using the territories
traditionally occupied:
traditional populations are also defined by their binding relative
harmony with nature, by thorough knowledge of nature and its cycles
and the notion of territory or space where they reproduce
economically and socially (SANTILLI, 2005, p. 129).

Conditions that reverberate in the context of building their ethnic identity

and collective. What is ratified on the goal of the National Policy for the
Sustainable Development of Traditional Peoples and Communities, expressed
in its Article 2º:
promover o desenvolvimento sustentável dos Povos e Comunidades
Tradicionais, com ênfase no reconhecimento, fortalecimento e
garantia dos seus direitos territoriais, sociais, ambientais, econômicos
e culturais, com respeito e valorização à sua identidade, suas formas
de organização e suas instituições. (BRASIL 2007 - without
translation).

O It is observed that such legal guarantees reach traditional populations

not indigenous and not maroon. However, it is worth noting that although there
is a specific law on the rights of traditional indigenous peoples and Maroons still
require regulatory specifications for a broad category of social groups that
include the name traditional populations. As well exposes Santilli (2005):
The new environmental vision considers that Brazil has enormous
cultural diversity, living here indigenous peoples, artisanal fishers,
gatherers, riverine, etc., to develop their own and different
relationships with nature, both on the symbolic level as in the field of
techniques and ways of make and produce [...]. (SANTILLI, 2005, p.
130).

Are traditional populations with different ways of life. Or as Diegues

(1996, p. 142), these "[...] have a deep knowledge of natural resources,
considered as culturally distinct groups, with their natural and historical
processes of reproduction."
In this sense, we highlight the importance of considering accurately the
social, cultural, economic and environmental characteristics constitute singular
modus vivendi of peoples and traditional communities in their uniqueness. So to
ensure the provisions of the National Policy for the Sustainable Development of
Traditional Peoples and Communities, art. 1, Item XIV: the preservation of
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cultural rights, the exercise of community practices, cultural memory and the
identity of these populations.
The issue of insufficient regulatory specifications of different segments
that are included in this concept of 'traditional' is relevant to the extent that there
are in the Amazon region a recurring incidence of conflicts due mainly to the
land regulations. Thus constitute an advance the recognition of social and
cultural differences prescribed by law, to ensure that these populations can live
up to their standards of cultural and social values historically constructed, it is
necessary to deepen the analysis about the failure of regulatory specifications
for the term peoples and traditional communities, as they involve on questions
of territoriality, the places where such people keep their knowledge and
practices - constituted in the forms of land use that traditionally occupy.
And these therefore relevant criteria when the analysis of the relevant
legislation to territory rights claimed by these populations in the face of rights
overlap. In what must be observed:
Art. 1º As ações e atividades voltadas para o alcance dos objetivos
da Política Nacional de Desenvolvimento Sustentável dos Povos e
Comunidades Tradicionais deverão ocorrer de forma intersetorial,
integrada, coordenada, sistemática e observar os seguintes
princípios: [...] V - o desenvolvimento sustentável como promoção da
melhoria da qualidade de vida dos povos e comunidades tradicionais
nas gerações atuais, garantindo as mesmas possibilidades para as
gerações futuras e respeitando os seus modos de vida e as suas
tradições; VI - a pluralidade socioambiental, econômica e cultural das
comunidades e dos povos tradicionais que interagem nos diferentes
biomas e ecossistemas, sejam em áreas rurais ou urbanas; VII - a
promoção da descentralização e transversalidade das ações e da
ampla participação da sociedade civil na elaboração, monitoramento
e execução desta Política a ser implementada pelas instâncias
governamentais;[...] X - a promoção dos meios necessários para a
efetiva participação dos Povos e Comunidades Tradicionais nas
instâncias de controle social e nos processos decisórios relacionados
aos seus direitos e interesses;[...] XII - a contribuição para a formação
de uma sensibilização coletiva por parte dos órgãos públicos sobre a
importância dos direitos humanos, econômicos, sociais, culturais,
ambientais e do controle social para a garantia dos direitos dos povos
e comunidades tradicionais. (BRASIL, 2007- without translation).

While peoples and traditional communities of the Amazon have left the
invisibility, its socio-cultural and environmental reality should be kept in the
spotlight. This world is still as plural stage of different conflicts. Among which,
the decline of the rights of these populations, the absence of their participation
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in decision making, the non-recognition of their identity, their relationship with

the land.

Overlap of Protected Areas

The National System of Nature Conservation Units (SNUC), established

by Law n. 9,985 / 00, establishing the criteria and standards for the creation,
deployment and management of protected areas. Is considered an important
milestone for regulation of environmental law. What is due mainly to the
pressure exerted by civil society:
The creation of a national protected area system through an articulate
and representative set of Brazilian ecosystems samples with different
categories of protected areas, just happened to be contemplated from
the late 70s, under the influence of International environmental
organizations. The Brazilian protected areas were previously created
sporadically, case studies and unsystematic, according to the
opportunities arising in specific contexts and political circumstances.
(SANTILLI, 2005, p. 110).

In his text, the Law n. 9.985 / 00 provides for the following definition of
protected area:
o
Art. 2 Para os fins previstos nesta Lei, entende-se por: I - unidade de
conservação: espaço territorial e seus recursos ambientais, incluindo
as águas jurisdicionais, com características naturais relevantes,
legalmente instituído pelo Poder Público, com objetivos de
conservação e limites definidos, sob regime especial de
administração, ao qual se aplicam garantias adequadas de proteção.
(BRASIL, 2000 - without translation).

Regarding the conservation criterion, this law has the following

understanding:

o
Art. 2 Para os fins previstos nesta Lei, entende-se por: [...] II -
conservação da natureza: o manejo do uso humano da natureza,
compreendendo a preservação, a manutenção, a utilização
sustentável, a restauração e a recuperação do ambiente natural, para
que possa produzir o maior benefício, em bases sustentáveis, às
atuais gerações, mantendo seu potencial de satisfazer as
necessidades e aspirações das gerações futuras, e garantindo a
sobrevivência dos seres vivos em geral. (BRASIL, 2000- without
translation).

On specific groups comprising protected areas, have been the Integral

Protection Units and Sustainable Use Units. The Full Protection Units aims
(Article 7, § 1.): The preservation of nature, and admitted the indirect use of
natural resources; while the Sustainable Use Units aims (Article 7, § 1.): a
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nature conservation compliance in relation to the sustainable use of part of its

natural resources. It follows that the following categories of protected area (a)
Full Protection (Article 8, Sections I, II, III, IV, V.): Ecological Station; Biological
Reserve; National Park; Natural Monument; Wildlife Refuge; (B) Sustainable
Use (Article 14, Sections I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII.): Environmental Protection Area;
Area of Relevant Ecological Interest; National Forest; Extractive Reserve;
Fauna Reserve; Sustainable Development Reserve; and Private Natural
Heritage Reserve.

It should be emphasized that:

A Lei SNUC reconhece, em diversos dispositivos, o papel e a

contribuição das populações tradicionais para a conservação e o uso
sustentável da diversidade biológica, tendo criado duas categorias de
unidades de conservação de uso sustentável, especificamente
destinadas a abrigar as populações tradicionais e proteger os meios
de vida e a cultura dessas populações. Além das referidas unidades
de conservação, que têm por objetivo principal abrigar populações
tradicionais e proteger os meios de vida e a cultura dessas
populações, as florestas nacionais também admitem a presença de
populações tradicionais residentes. Embora o objetivo primordial das
florestas nacionais não seja abrigar populações tradicionais, e sim
promover o uso múltiplo sustentável dos recursos florestais, a
permanência de populações tradicionais que as habitam quando de
sua criação é expressamente admitida. (SANTILLI, 2005, p. 125-
without translation).

Given the contents including outlining given to the term conservation,

followed by the definition of Integral Protection Conservation Units and
Sustainable Use for the purposes of analysis that follow in this article are
exposed the following specific objective of the National Development Policy
sustainable Traditional Peoples and Communities (Article 3, Item II.):
solucionar e/ou minimizar os conflitos gerados pela implantação de
Unidades de Conservação de Proteção Integral em territórios
tradicionais e estimular a criação de Unidades de Conservação de
Uso Sustentável”. Entretanto, o que se observa é a incidência
recorrente de conflitos oriundos da criação de Unidades de
Conservação de Proteção Integral em áreas habitadas por estas
populações, e que acabam sofrendo com as expropriações, com os
processos de restrições às suas práticas sociais. (BRASIL, 2007 -
without translation).

This text provisions in the National Sustainable Development of

Traditional Peoples and Communities Policy is already protect the real
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possibility of conflicts arising from the implementation of Integral Protection

Conservation Units, when in overlapping territories occupied by traditional
peoples and communities. Reality this applicant in the Amazon region, which
involves conflicts sometimes violent in the face of Integral Protection Protected
Areas of overlap in areas inhabited by traditional populations (DIEGUES, 2000).

Although the SNUG available in your text, within the categories of

Extractive Reserves (MER) and Sustainable Development Reserves (RDS),
specifically, rights in traditional communities, the question is when the
government's decision to establish an Integral Protection Unit in territories
occupied by these populations. What happens in many cases, is that the
possibility of expropriation, restriction of socio-cultural practices, has been
questioned by these populations to the extent that such action interferes directly
in their modus vivendi in its identity. About this, it is important to note the
following understanding of Santilli (2005):
The fundamental principle that should guide any application and
judicial interpretation of SNUG is that it is a system of social and
environmental conservation units aimed at protecting and conserving
natural and associated cultural resources, based on unitary and
indivisible understanding of environment and culture, and integration
between man and nature. [...]. Both biological diversity and cultural
diversity are constitutionally protected values, and the special concern
of the legislature to ensure the traditional peoples the conditions
necessary for their physical and cultural reproduction is caused by
recognition of its unique relationship with nature. (SANTILLI, 2005, p.
133-134).

By having the Amazon region a complex set of areas with significant

biodiversity, occupied by traditional peoples and communities, the inseparable
relationship between environment and culture should be assessed more
critically:
Protected areas often harbor traditional populations, but the shortage
of spaces poses a dichotomy between the defense of the rights of
traditional communities and the establishment of fully protected
conservation units. These efforts should not be exclusive, but the
conflict reveals prejudices on both sides and introducing a fallacious
opposition. (VIANNA, 2008, p. 309).

In this scenario, what is at stake is the possibility of decline of guaranteed

rights to traditional populations. The problem is that, as expressed Vianna
(2008):
[...]the government does not have a defined policy to deal with
overlapping territories with different purposes [...] it is necessary to
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overcome the legal inconsistencies and assume that the overlap of

the territories for the conservation of biodiversity and / or biodiversity
protection by itself only implies a discussion of their destiny and their
management. (Vianna, 2008, p. 309).

An alternative to this conflict would be the possibility of reclassification of

Integral Protection Conservation Units, in each case, could be turned into
extractive reserves or Sustainable Development Reserves. However, this
solution "[...] was excluded from the SNUC Law - even though approved by
Congress, was vetoed by the President" (SANTILLI, 2005, p 167.). What has
happened is the creation of Extractive Reserves and Sustainable Development
Reserves located in other areas, but not those where the Integral Protection
Conservation Units were created in conflict. As has been challenged, in specific
cases, by traditional peoples and communities directly affected by the
implementation of the conservation units, mainly because of the resulting
problems of resettlement proposals.

Conflicts in Black River State Park

The State Park of Rio Negro, created by Decree n. 16,497 / 95 is located

in the areas of the cities of Manaus, New Airão, Iranduba and Manacapuru,
surrounded by the Environmental Protection Areas of the Left Bank and the
Right Bank of the Rio Negro, and its initial area of approximately 257,422 ha in
the southern sector and of 178 620 ha in the northern sector. Later, in 2001,
Law No. 2,646 / 01 amends the limits of Rio Negro State Park, North and South
sectors, and environmental protection areas, the left and right margins of the
Rio Negro. That Integral Protection Conservation Unit is subject to numerous
environmental conflicts due to the coexistence inside the Park and its
surroundings, traditional populations.
According to the Institute for Ecological Research (IPE, 2010),
responsible for the Conservation Unit Management Plan Rio Negro State Park:
many efforts have been undertaken to provide better management of
this protected area (...) However, the absence of a management
document, the lack of land tenure, lack of adequate infrastructure to
ensure the monitoring, inspection and enforcement to practices that
degrade this unit allowed over the years the worsening environmental
problems and social. (IPE, 2010, p. 15).
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In this context, certainly, disinformation by the populations as the

restrictions on their practices should be considered one of the important aspects
that demonstrate the gap between public policy and the local reality. For the
Institute for Ecological Research (IPE, 2010, p. 26), "the creation of UC
represented an authoritative act of the State, since not considered traditional
peoples who inhabited the region at the time of its creation." Such uncertainties
scenario is the motivation framework of the claims of these populations, mainly
the regularization of their lands.
The land issue is the main guiding object of conflicts arising from the
creation of the Park:
[...]one of the greatest challenges to the effective management of
PAREST Rio Negro South Sector is your land situation. [...]. When
creating this UC, was not taken into account the views of local people
and their management has not been implemented. Basic actions,
such as the collection of the land to the National Institute of
Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), have not been
implemented [...] (IPE, 2010, p. 20).

Despite being a Full Protection Unit, it there are people who recognize
themselves as traditional, whether indigenous or belonging to other social
segments. Such populations are facing problems involving spatial planning
policy (Lima, 2013). Where it is clear the decline of such rights.
In this territory consisting of different social groups, the possibility of
recognition of an area as Indigenous in the discussions about the layout of the
land where the park is bounded, emerges as a specific motivation for the
coastal communities that inhabit the interior and the surroundings of the park, to
mobilize in order to claim their land rights. The impact of this fact gives then
rise, the creation in 2005 of the Sustainable Development Project (PDS)
Cuieiras-Apuaú:
The PDS, however, was created in a minimum working more
extensive social organization, creating a situation of misinformation
and conflict between the settlers. In addition, the settlement is
superimposed on the half of the PAREST Rio Negro Sector South
area, creating a contradiction between firms in the two areas
objectives: one aiming at the full protection and other human
settlement by proposing sustainable development. This overlap
creates a situation of uncertainty and unknowns about the land
scenery of the region, forcing the agencies involved to negotiate (IPE,
2010, p. 20).

The situation that is spreading in the government instances is the lack of

dialogue with the affected populations, as well as the internal dialogue between
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different sectors of government, responsible for policies on land use. What

compounds the conflict.
The existence of communities and traditional peoples, before the creation
of the State Park Black River South Sector, which depend on the territory and
natural resources, is the object under consideration by representatives of
populations located in and around the Park. With exposes Diegues (2000):

[...] The permanence of traditional populations in protected natural

areas is not justified only by the protection and recognition of large
baggage ethnoknowledge transmitted from generation to generation
about the natural conditions, the need to ensure their historical rights
to their territory, but also as examples to be considered by the urban-
industrial civilization in the necessary redefinition of its current
relationships with nature. (DIEGUES, 2000, p. 72).

Inside the Rio Negro State Park are located communities along the Rio
Cuieiras (Barreirinhas, Good Hope and New Hope) and Rio Negro (Jaraqui,
Macaws, little guy and Caioé). According to the Institute for Ecological
Research, there are other communities that use the area of the Park to develop
productive activities. Following this, the inclusion of communities with the
Tatulândia, St. John Tupé and Agrovila, which were included in the analyzes of
the Institute for being in the Park border area, although belonging to
Sustainable Development Reserve Tupé.
In these, there is the presence of indigenous and non-indigenous
families, who in the 1980s, "[...] conformed as communities and started to
demand certain rights and benefits with the government, with regard to land
tenure and care to education and health "(IPE, 2010, p. 95).
In the late 1990s, indigenous communities Cuieiras River, New Canaan,
as well as the communities of Terra Preta and Sao Tome, began to mobilize
and work together with indigenous movements to guarantee their territorial
rights, and from it recognized by the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) as
indigenous peoples. With regard to non-indigenous communities, still according
to the Institute for Ecological Research, in 2000, they organized themselves and
started to demand a settlement with INCRA. What resulted in the creation of the
Sustainable Development Program (PDS) Cuieiras-Apuaú.
With regard to economic and productive activities of families living in and
around the park there are significant distinctions. Communities that are closer to
 13

the capital, Manaus, are more populous and maintains a distinct relationship to
space when compared to communities living inside the Park. In the first case, in
the face of occupation history, the logging has highlighted:

Most residents of the South Sector PAREST Rio Negro region and
surroundings is aware of his condition marginalized within this division
of labor, as well as social and environmental damage resulting from
the indiscriminate extraction of timber. Many show interest in changing
the situation in which they live, but if they see no alternative to obtain
the necessary means of subsistence (IPE, 2010, p. 113).

In the second case, are highlighted more intensely productive activities of

subsistence and economic activities with low environmental impact. About this
provides the document Institute for Ecological Research (IPE, 2010):
Families maintain agriculture as a means of territorial, identity and
production, [...]. One of their livelihood is the farm, also called swidden
or slash-and-burn, with cassava as food base. About 20% of
households produce flour as the main product to market, showing an
agriculture to supply domestic needs. In addition, they use hand tools
such as machetes, axes, hoes and saws (in some cases) during the
production process. The use of agrochemicals is uncommon. This
type of farming, the roles of each family member are well defined. It is
for adult men and young people to make the mowing process (drill),
tree felling and burning. Planting is usually done by the whole family.
Women and young children are responsible for the management of
the gardens (cleaning and replanting) and harvesting. (IPE, 2010, p.
108).

Thus the distinction between economic and productive activities of these

populations, the question that prevails is the construction of their identity
constituted from their relationships with forms of land use and natural resources
and, in the case of environmental impact activities considerable, the lack of
alternatives to the livelihoods of the same. In this scenario, to Cunha (2012), the
issue concerns legal matters relating to environmental law, territorial and
cultural, as well as conflicts between the differing interests of the government,
the ONGs, traditional communities and indigenous federations.
That said, there is some important points contained in the Management
Plan for the Conservation Unit of the Rio Negro Park, conducted by the Institute
for Ecological Research (IPE, 2010):
Lack of coherence in the Park's boundaries for the conservation of
ecosystems (must cover a bowl or habitat); Disruption of the
traditional way of life of communities; Lack of recognition of
territoriality of communities (indigenous and non-indigenous); The
park category is not appropriate to local conditions [...]. (IPE, 2010, p.
127).
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Are added to this table overlays on the proposals for allocations of territory; the
absence of effective public policies for the use of natural resources; the inability
of instances of public power in dialogue with the communities; the lack of
recognition by the government, the interests and demands of the communities;
the uncertainty of land tenure; among others.

CONSIDERATIONS

The processes of inclusion in the light of recognition of plural cultural identities

should be considered as one of the most important aspects of social, legal and
political - in the problem that it does not end within the formal recognition
perspective. This means a permanent tension, as if on one hand the law is
equal, the other guys are differences judging by the multiple realities. The laying
on screen the fact that the demands caused by the conflicts in the face of the
protected areas can be considered legitimate to bring founded on the
recognition and acceptance of essential values and why not say imprescriptible.
In this context, it is pertinent to consider that the evaluative expressions of
traditional peoples and communities are revealed in different subject-world
relations, in the expression of the authenticity of their ways of life, their
knowledge and practices historically built and passed on for generations.
Both biological diversity and cultural diversity are guaranteed constitutionally,
and its inseparable relationship should be taken as a guiding principle when
creating protected areas. It takes careful data that, in fact, to describe the socio-
cultural and environmental reality of conflicting territories.
The coexistence of traditional populations in the limited space of this Rio Negro
State Park confirms the disregard by the power of instances of symbolic
relationships built by these populations inhabit this territory for centuries,
keeping with him an inseparable connection between nature and culture. What's
reverberate in different conflicts arising from the overlap of environmental rights
in relation to cultural rights. Then, having as main object of dispute preserving a
modus vivendi now threatened.
The question resonates in the contemporary challenges to be faced because of
the cultural identity of these populations, whose clash between the sense of
 15

belonging and the environment to be preserved is what is at the heart of these

conflicts around the implementation of the Rio Negro State Park. A context that
reflects the limits and tensions between the meaning of the subject and the
world that prescribes the right in the face of their concrete and plural realities.

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