Diagnóstico socioeconômico de duas comunidades ribeirinhas do Rio Coreaú, Estado do Ceará, Brasil

Abstract

This research had as its main objective to characterize, from the socio-economic standpoint, the communities located near to the estuaries in the municipal district of Camocim-Ceará State, aiming at to better know the life´s conditions of the householders and their relationship with the mangroves as a source of food and income, mainly in what concerns the collection of oyesters of mangroves. The study was restricted to the communities of Sambaiba and Quilômetro Quatro,located at the Coreaú River´s bank. The community´s householders were characterized by using socioeconomic indicators such as demography (age, sex, education, family size, etc.), social aspects (dwelling conditions, water supply, basic sanitation, power source, etc.) and economic aspects (income source, family income, family assets, etc.), which were gathered by the application of a questionnaire and interviews with key-informants of the communities. We could verify that the communities showed significant differences regarding the quality of life, mainly determined by the infrastructure and the distance to the town of Camocim. It was able to observe that the communities presented a low quality of live, being Sambaíba, 12 km far from Camocim, that one in more precarious conditions, since it did not have provision of any basic infrastructure, besides that they depended strongly on the food gathering for household subsistence. In general, the gathering of oyster seems to contribute little as income source for the households, despite the favorable environmental conditions of the estuaries for the oyester raising.