SEAWEEDS: TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
Macroalgae; Traditional activities; Goods and services; Algae cultivation.
Marine macroalgae have played an important role in coastal communities for centuries due to their diverse applicability. Currently, a large part of the algal biomass traded in the world comes from extractive activities and family farming carried out by traditional populations around the world, valuing traditional knowledge. In addition, marine macroalgae are considered a valuable source of a range of ecosystem services, covering the environmental, social and economic spheres. This study aimed to investigate the traditional knowledge and practices present in the extraction activities (harvesting and cultivation) of marine macroalgae on the beach of Rio do Fogo, RN, as well as to identify the ecosystem services provided by the macroalgae and their importance for coastal communities . The research was divided into two chapters. The first chapter identified the traditional techniques and skills applied in the extractive activities of harvesting and cultivating the G. birdiae macroalgae. In this chapter, it was demonstrated how the traditional knowledge of extractive activity encompasses knowledge about the ecology of the collected macroalgae and its life cycle. It was possible to verify that the traditional knowledge and practices present in the activities of extraction and cultivation have a positive influence on the conservation of natural resources, and that their use in a rational way is of great importance for the perpetuation of the knowledge of these traditional populations. In the second chapter, given the importance of the environmental, social and economic spheres of marine macroalgae, the study focused on the analysis of ecosystem services, providing a qualitative assessment of the records found in the literature on ecosystem services provided by marine macroalgae, in addition to the identification of services offered by the cultivation of the G. birdiae macroalgae, located in the municipality of Rio do Fogo. For this, a bibliographic research was carried out that addressed ecosystem services associated with macroalgae. A total of 1,428 articles were analyzed, of which 163 reported some type of ecosystem service. Of the total number of articles analyzed, regulation services were the most mentioned in the literature (30.1%), provision (28.4), support (28.0%) and cultural (13.5%), distributed in 16 services associated with macroalgae (natural banks and crops). In the cultivation of macroalgae on the beach of Rio do Fogo, 11 ecosystem services were identified, from which the local population benefits directly and indirectly. Thus, we can conclude that both natural banks and cultivation systems have offered numerous ecosystem services, thus contributing to environmental enhancement and positively influencing environmental preservation and conservation and human well-being.