Mudanças climáticas e sistemas alimentares: um olhar para as atividades produtivas na região da foz do Rio São Francisco

Abstract

Climate change has caused extreme events, such as excessive rainfall and very dry years. Climate projections warn about the need for strategies capable of ensuring food sovereignty and security. The study relied on the perception of human populations living in the region of the São Francisco River Mouth (Piaçabuçu, Alagoas) to answer the following question: how are productive activities (agriculture, wild food plant extraction, and fishing) impacted by climate change in the region? For data collection, nine Rapid Participatory Diagnosis (RPD) workshops were conducted with eight different communities in the municipality of Piaçabuçu. A total of 149 people participated in the workshops. The data were analyzed in a qualitative-quantitative manner. For the main products of each community, a relative productivity loss index (RPLI) was calculated for excessively rainy years (RPLI-Rainy) and excessively dry years (RPLI-Dry). Subsequently, Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) were performed to identify if the type of activity influences RPLI-Rainy and RPLI-Dry. In general, the communities distribute their efforts among different productive activities, with a strong overlap (individuals practicing more than one activity) and wide product diversification. There were no differences between activities regarding RPLI, except for the main fishing products, which experienced fewer losses in excessively rainy years compared to the main agricultural and extraction products. The results demonstrated the municipality's broad potential for addressing climate change. However, challenges related to the implementation of conservation strategies, monitoring of sustainable use, and access to land need to be overcome.