Nature socialized, nature contested. An ethnographic analysis of the Reserva Extrativista Quilombo do Frechal, Brazil

Based on an anti-essentialist framework, this paper intends to show the potentialities of an anthropological political ecology in the study of environmental topics related to preservation. By valorizing an interpretative and monist perspective, it analyzes the case of a Brazilian Extractive Reserve from an ethnographic point of view, in order to comprehend the specificity of the local social construction of nature. The controversial role of vegetation in my interlocutors’ life – interpreted in strongly negative terms and, at the same time, with a fundamental role in the definition of the common sense of social belonging – problematizes some key assumptions of the Brazilian socio-environmentalist discourse. This approach to the study of nature also allows to better understand the unexpected conflicts that began to emerge after the institution of this participative type of environmental re-serve. Finally, the aim of this case-study is to underline the importance of focusing the attention not only on the socio-cultural dynamics that occur inside a protected area, but also outside of it, by considering the consequences of its presence in the wider municipal context