Health and safety standards in labor and extractivism: the case of rural communities in Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

This article is the result of a field research conducted among collectors of oleaginous seeds and fruits - Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) - in the rural areas of Salvaterra and Bragança, in the state of Pará, Brazil. It aimed to contribute to empirical studies on health and occupational safety in extractivism, still incipient in Brazil due to the lack of technical-scientific support and the lack of specific regulation on the area. The research was conducted by the collection of primary and observational data that point out the risks to health and safety to which collectors are exposed to and the methods to prevent accidents in order to identify possible improvements to working conditions in a context in which labor regulation standards for autonomous, informal and extractive workers in the Amazon is practically inexistent. This paper’s methodology is characterized as an embedded case study along with the collection of quantitative and qualitative data with the adoption of mixed methods for their systematization. The results show that new practices and norms should be adopted so the risks to health and safety of collectors are minimized, besides ensuring the inspection, incentives and monitoring of safety practices that are adequate to the activity and specific to each region.