Agroecological innovations as part of a strategy to peasant territorial resistance: the study case of Paraty in the Rio de Janeiro state.

Abstract

This study presents an analysis of agroecological initiatives undertaken by peasants in Paraty, State of Rio de Janeiro. The focus of this investigation was to verify whether agroecological innovations have made a contribution within the context of a strategy to the peasant resistance efforts against territory expropriation made by capital, with consequent social and cultural erosion of the way of life of these families. The existence of strategies, techniques, perceptions and knowledge, which allow the continued presence of peasantry without endangering the structure and the renewal of natural resources, points to the existence of an ecological rationality underlying the social and environmental management practices of peasant farmers, present in that territory. The peasant mode of production of natural resources has contributed to consolidating the peasantry ongoing resistance in the face of the intense process of expropriation of their land, and has ensured the continuation of their way of life within the territory.