HEALTH CARE IN ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION UNITS IN AMAZONAS: CONFLICT OF COMPETENCY OR RESPONSIBILITY ISSUE?

Atenção à saúde nas unidades de conservação ambiental no Amazonas: conflitos de competência ou questão de responsabilidade?

Resumo

This article analyzes the discursive representations in the collective thinking of socio-environmentalists about the competencies and responsibilities of policies on protected areas concerning the health of riverside populations. Descriptive exploratory study with a qualitative approach based on the collective thinking of socio-environmentalists working with policy on protected areas of the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, from seven interviews collected by a semi-structured script and analyzed using the Discourse of the Collective Subject technique. Respondents express knowledge about the constitutional competencies of the municipality regarding health, but have difficulty in dialoguing with city halls on the subject; the responsibilities of the management of the conservation units (UC) and public non-state organizations that work in support of co-management are attributed to the responsibility for governing public policies and formulating scientific information to improve local health. In addition to the absence of dialogue, there is also no public agenda within the scope of environmental policy. There are experiences of access to health in rural areas adapted to the socio-environmental context of the reserve; however, they are intermittent. The discursive representations of the collective thinking of socio-environmentalists express knowledge about municipal competencies concerning health and concerns regarding meeting these needs. The meeting of social needs is organized in a conflictual manner, due to the lack of coordination between the several institutions that operate in this territory. The decentralization of competencies and responsibilities over natural resources by the co-management of UC imposed new roles and authorities on the territories.