As mudanças ambientais globais envolvem alterações no clima e nos sistemas ecológicos, incidem nos ciclos naturais, determinando prejuízos à infraestrutura, às atividades econômicas, sociais e à saúde humana, afetando, principalmente, as populações mais vulneráveis. Hoje, estima-se que as zonas costeiras são as regiões que mais sofrerão esses impactos, com efeitos diretos na economia e no cotidiano de suas comunidades. Fenômenos como o aumento de temperatura, do nível dos oceanos e da salinidade, eventos extremos, perdas das áreas de várzea e manguezais costeiros, aliados à ocupação desordenada do solo, pela construção de grandes empreendimentos tecnológicos e por turismo de massa, poderão afetar diretamente essas regiões. Estudar o Litoral Norte Paulista se justifica porque este tem sofrido impactos decorrentes das mudanças ambientais globais e porque suas comunidades expressam forte vulnerabilidade socioambiental. O objetivo deste artigo é verificar a percepção dos pescadores artesanais da praia da Cocanha/Caraguatatuba, Litoral norte paulista, Brasil, por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas e da observação direta de seu cotidiano, para averiguar, através dessa metodologia, sua percepção sobre a variação da temperatura do mar, sobre o volume de chuvas e sobre a imprevisibilidade das condições climáticas em geral. A análise dos dados, provenientes das entrevistas com os pescadores artesanais, sobre sua percepção sobre os impactos dessas mudanças, contribuirá para o melhor entendimento da vulnerabilidade e dos riscos aos quais estão submetidos, e a sua relação intrínseca com as mudanças ambientais globais sofridas.
Global environmental changes involve changes in climate and ecological systems, on natural cycles, causing damages to infrastructure, to economic and social activities and to human health, affecting populations in various parts of the planet, mainly the more poor and vulnerable populations, and those that are subjected to precarious general services and environmental urban infrastructure. Today, it is estimated that coastal areas are the regions that will most suffer these impacts, with direct effects on the economy and daily life of their communities. Simultaneously to the observation of increasing problems, there is great progress in research on global environmental change, where the human dimensions have been prioritized. This task, however, has been a major challenge today. The construction and history of the concept of global and urban environmental change have occurred mostly in recent decades, from a perspective of human dimensions, including systemic changes that operate globally through the major systems of the geosphere-biosphere, while that cause cumulative changes in both the global and local perspective, and should be considered across different spatial scales. Phenomena such as increased temperature, sea level and salinity, extreme events, loss of floodplains and coastal mangroves, connected with disorderly soil use, the construction of large technological developments and mass tourism, may directly affect these regions. To understand this approach and the “locus” where our thinking is inserted is important to consider that the contemporary world is undergoing an interaction of two major global processes: climate change and economic globalization. Thus, it is believed that the globalization of economic processes that promote large impacts, and climate change associated with them are the great challenge of this century, due to the changes that may originate and can cause damage to the economic and social systems, human health and quality of life. Thus, studying the North Coast Paulista is justified because this area is suffering impacts of global environmental change and because their communities express strong socioenvironmental vulnerability. The choice of Cocanha beach, located in the northern area of Caraguatatuba, São Paulo, Brasil, is justified by being a good example of changes that have occurred in the region, and because this municipality is considered the gateway to the northern coast of São Paulo State. Cocanha, as well as other beaches in the region, has suffered strong influence of tourism and a growing process of land use, which occurred from the 1950s, with the opening of Highway Tamoios (SP -099), which connects the Northern Coast of São Paulo State to the industrialized Vale do Paraíba, combined with improvements in regional infrastructure that arise from the project to expand São Sebastião Harbor. In addition the beach of Cocanha has great relevance to the region in terms of tourism and economy, since it is characterized as the largest producer of mussels of the State of São Paulo. The purpose of this article is to verify the perception of fishermen that work at this beach, through semi-structured interviews and direct observation of their daily lives, to ascertain, through this methodology, their perception on the sea temperature variation, on the rainfall and on the unpredictability of the weather in general. This methodological choice is justified because there is a tradition of research where the perception of fishermen and traditional knowledge of fishing communities, even if realized using different theoretical approaches and methodologies, represent an inexhaustible source of knowledge and reference information on various aspects, and can help to allow a broader understanding of the reality of the use of natural resources, as well as important evidence about the study area. And in many situations this perception and knowledge may influence in planning, adaptation and mitigation for numerous situations of risk and social vulnerability, that many of these populations are subjected. In interviews with fishermen, it became clear the perception they have on the temperature variation of seawater over time, increased rainfall and unpredictable climatic conditions, which are perceived as the major interference in their activities, both fishing and shellfish culture, showing to them a decrease in their fish production. The analysis of data from interviews with fishermen, on their perceptions of the impact of these changes may contribute to a better understanding of the vulnerability and the risks to which they are subjected, and its intrinsic relationship with the global environmental changes suffered, as well as for the indication and formulation of public policies that can mitigate the problems highlighted.
