Serviços ecossistêmicos culturais em Unidades de Conservação e práticas religiosas de matriz africana

Abstract

The Protected Areas (PAs) in Brazil provide important cultural ecosystem services (CES) to the whole society and are used to carry out various activities such as scientific research, environmental education, recreation, ecotourism, and religious purposes. However, afroreligious practices are often seen as incompatible with the public use of PA, triggering conflicts and tensions with park administrators/managers. In this context, this study aimed to contribute to the improvement of the legal-political environmental framework of Rio de Janeiro state parks, particularly in the spaces where conflicts occur in religious public use involving afroreligious and administrators/managers. The methodology is characterized as qualitative research, case study type, with data collections made from secondary and bibliographical sources. For the analysis of this thesis, the Rio de Janeiro parks were selected, especially the Pedra Branca State Park (PBSP) for the examination of the legal-political environmental framework of parks. This is to verify if the afroreligious are at a disadvantage in obtaining the religious CES provided by the parks to all citizens of the state of Rio, which would characterize environmental racism. Still, whether the CES-based approach can corroborate the improvement of the legal framework regarding the religious public use of state parks. It turned out that the literature has methodologies for the evaluation of religious CES, but there was no research that specifically addressed the afroreligious CES, evidencing the originality of this thesis. From the management plans of the selected parks, it was found that the afroreligious practices are seen as polluting and degrading of the environment and conflicting with the conservation objectives of the PAs. However, it has been shown that the afroreligious have an intrinsic relationship with nature because African deities are inseparable from nature. The examined legal-political framework presented a series of restrictions/prohibitions to afroreligious demonstrations in parks. Only the afroreligious are in an unfavorable situation to obtain and enjoy the religious CES provided by the state parks to all society. This proved the environmental racism practiced by administrators/managers of PA against the afroreligious.This unfavorable condition will be perpetuated in case of approval of Bill of Law 2,455/2020, which did not present legal provisions for the valuation and respect of the afroreligious CES, in addition to condemning the sacred areas of parks to informality, like the Sagrada Cachoeira at PBSP. It is concluded that the afroreligious suffer from environmental racism because they are at a disadvantage in obtaining religious CES, and susceptible to religious intolerance and conservatism in the use of sacred areas. In addition, the CES approach is an innovative tool for the correct reading of religious public use by recognizing the religious/spiritual dimension of the PAs and adding it to the legal framework of the state parks, corroborating the construction of a fair, democratic, and anti-racist society. Nevertheless, for this, there must be concrete advances in the public environmental policies of Rio de Janeiro parks