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Abstract
The County of Tauá is located in the region of Inhamuns in
the State of Ceará, one of the areas most affected by impacts of periodic
droughts, with their adverse influence on production and consequently on
the farmers’ quality of life. It is observed that, during climate crises, the
communities have limiting defense mechanisms. It is supposed that the
social capital, as a mechanism that agglutinates and facilitates coordinated
actions, strengthens the communities and reduces the vulnerability.
This study intends to verify and analyze the importance of social and
physical capital as a strategy of Lustal and Sítio Lagoa communities to
live with droughts. For this purpose, a questionnaire containing a list of
social capital variables was submitted to specialists to rank them. Out
of this list the ten most frequent variables were selected. Following, in
the Tauá County, technical specialists and rural agents experienced in
these communities were asked to provide weight to social and physical
capital variables. With this information, an Index was developed to show
the importance of social capital in the reduction of vulnerability as well
as the relative importance of social and physical capital in these communities.
The present work enabled the verification of the relevance of
social and physical capital as decisive elements of the level of vulnerability
of the communities of Lustal and Sítio Lagoa.