Degradação ambiental no Submédio São Francisco e seus reflexos sobre a pesca artesanal

Abstract

The present study demonstrates the survival conditions of fisherfolk that live in the Lower Basin region of the São Francisco River. Over the past four decades, it has been severely affected by the devastation of riparian forests, the construction of dams for hydroelectric facilities, the pollution resulting from poor sanitation and lack of environmental education of coastal communities. literature about the San Francisco river during the time of colonial Brazil; documentary research in federal agencies and empirical research in seven cities of the Lower Basin of San Francisco River, including - Remanso, Sento Sé, Casa Nova, Sobradinho, Curaçá, Juazeiro and Paulo Afonso, were all used to support the conclusions in this study. The sample used consisted of 60 fishermen and managers of municipal sanitation. It appears that the areas investigated are obvious factors of environmental degradation of the San Francisco River. Throughout the course of the river, the damage dramatically undermines one of the most important watersheds in the country, with immediate implications on the considerable decrease of the schools and even the extinction of some species. As a consequence, the reduction of traditional fishing, as livelihood of the communities surveyed, has increasingly declined over time. It was also found that deforestation, of the San Francisco River banks, increased soil erosion and siltation of the river bed. This occurs on an even larger scale in irrigated agricultural communities such as Juazeiro-BA and Petrolina-PE. In turn, the construction of dams significantly changed the river’s course, by controlling its flow; this accentuated the problem of siltation and eliminated the lagoons, which were preferential breeding habitats of fish. This critical state of the river is made more serious because its waters are polluted by domestic sewage and agribusiness.