Contributions of abiotic nature to riverine populations in the Amazon, Brazil: an analysis based on geoenvironmental units

Abstract

Nature is an essential public resource that provides food, clean water, energy resources, minerals and shelter for human life. To face environmental changes and the exploitation of natural resources, it is crucial to understand and manage the ecosystem services (ES) that benefit humanity and preserve the natural processes that create them. In the Amazon region, the research area chosen for this study, rural communities have a way of life and social organization recognized as traditionally linked to nature; however, they do not benefit from ES due to several factors discussed in this paper. The contributions of ecosystems to human well-being are well accepted, but the services provided by geodiversity (abiotic) are often neglected in the classification systems of ES. This study identifies the importance of the relationship between geodiversity and ES, elucidating its role in the well-being of local populations. Three geological-environmental domains were identified and subdivided into five geoenvironmental units covering the geosystem services described in “Nature's Contributions to People (NCP)”. The domains contained the following groups: regulatory, material and non-material. This research concludes that the ES provided by geodiversity plays a crucial role in supporting natural resources essential for local communities and that their conservation is vital for environmental sustainability and the quality of life of riparians.

Keywords

• amazon
• ecosystem services
• geodiversity
• natural resources
• traditional community