Management of Açai Areas in the Sustainability-Oriented Supply Chain in the Municipality of Abaetetuba-Pará

The objective of this work is to characterize the areas of Açaí management focused on sustainability and identify impacts caused by its exploitation, in the municipality of Abaetetuba (Pará), Brazil. Therefore, information was collected on the Açaí management system, showing and verifying the impacts of production on the continuity of production based on sustainability. As the methodology, a documental analysis was carried out, which was done through research carried out and data from IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) and BASA (Amazon Bank S.A.) in PRONAF (National Program for Strengthening Family Agriculture), INCRA (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform) and through literature: articles, theses, dissertations, etc. The considerations point out the impacts that intensive management can generate on production and that the use of traditional management that has lesser impacts can ensure less impact on the environment and generate a balance in production, contributing to productive maintenance besides reducing impacts on the environment, providing local farmers with a capacity for sustainability, as it aids families socially, strengthening the economy and balancing the environment.


Introduction
The obstacle that the Brazilian market faces regarding social, economic, environmental, and technological factors, has generated a reflection on the small and medium producers who are part of the country's economic construction (Gomes et al., 2020). They seek to guarantee production in order to maintain a balance in sustainability, to guarantee its market value. As their goal is to remain in such a competitive market, small producers seek to strengthen themselves by creating small groups bearing in mind a balanced distribution in economic, social, and environmental development (Araújo et al., 2014).
Sustainable development has become a major challenge for the global market in the last 20 years to make companies, industries, and rural producers maintain their production, with a balanced vision between the pillars of "social, economic and environmental", to maintain equity between production and commercialization (Adams et al., 2020). This direction still happens, with the thought of creating a sustainable production chain that can guarantee the activities and the future society and with this rethinking how to conduct production (Bolton et al., 2020).
As the technology has progressed in equipment and/or processes, there is a trend in promoting the market and make producers increasingly competitive, as the application of new technologies increases production capacity and reduces impacts on the environment (Santos et al., 2012;Da Silva Melo et al., 2021). Consequently, producers began to seek more knowledge, to improve their production techniques and the efficiency and effectiveness of the process, to ensure production and the use of resources in an optimized way. Therefore, knowledge of the use of management as a way to ensure the sustainability of production was sought (Fernandes et. al., 2021). As a result, this work focuses on the management of the production of Açaí culture by local producers in the municipality of Abaetetuba, as it is a product whose consumption has been continuously growing.
As Açaí is a product with Amazonian characteristics and produced naturally in the floodplains, it was one of the primary ways of feeding the indigenous tribes. The production and collection were completely artisanal, with a low impact production, as it was aimed at household subsistence consumption only. Açaí has become popular and more consumed on the outskirts of cities since the 1960s and 1970s, in which it becomes marked by the importance of the fruit in the diet supplement of the families (Tagore et al., 2018).
The rise in the consumption of the Açaí fruit increased the need for extracting the fruit, but the upgrading of the Açaí palm led to a large felling of palm trees, which was driven by the reduction in the production of the Juçara palm tree (Homma, 2014;Nogueira & Homma, 2014). So, from the 1980s onwards, the Açaí palm heart assumed this market as a substitute product representing about 95% of the domestic production (Mourão, 2010).
The popularization of Açaí attracted a growing market, as in the case of consumers in the fitness segment due to the energy properties found in it, transforming the fruit into highly consumed food by a public with higher purchasing power rather than being only a source of food for riverside and periphery families (Santana, 2007;Nogueira & Santana, 2016).
The demand for Açaí valued the fruit resulting in the need for increasing production. Such production was more predatory, where the proper management was not considered. It was based on thinning and cutting of the tallest and oldest stem, the harvesting was performed through "peconhas" (handcrafted way to climb palm trees and collect the fruits), but the increase in consumption has led to the adoption of more competitive methods (Tagore et al., 2018).
The use of more competitive extraction methods led to an increase in the environmental impact and, consequently, reduced the production of the fruit. Such events led to a debate on the application of less impact management so to ensure balance and more sustainable production. Investments in lower-impact management provide the farmer a greater efficiency and effectiveness in the production of Açaí, resulting in a more sustainable chain for riverside families, for industries, and the consumer market (Bastos et al., 2019).
The concern with the management of Açaí resulted from the fact that the fruit has become one of the main sources of food and income, where 60% of the fruit is consumed by the local market, 35% is distributed to other regions and approximately 5% is for export trade (Tavares & Homma, 2015).
Based on this context, this paper proposes to study the importance of Açaí management in the supply chain direct towards sustainability in the municipality of Abaetetuba. This study is relevant due to the myriad of consequences that unmanaged exploration can have within a commercial relationship and the maintenance of sustainability.
Therefore, the objective of this work is to characterize the areas of Açaí management focused on sustainability and identify impacts caused by its exploitation, in the municipality of Abaetetuba (Pará), Brazil.

Data Source
Sustainability is to provide a balance between economic, social, and environmental factors to ensure a productive future. Sustainability aims to guarantee the needs of generations in the present and future, without generating an imbalance in the pillars of sustainability (Almeida, 1998). From an economic perspective, growth is based on the real value of production, which must remain constant and lasting. This impacts social development by giving families the possibility of purchasing power. Thus, this work sought to discuss theoretically the theme of sustainability based on sustainable management in the production of Açaí in the municipality of Abaetetuba.
The methods adopted for this work were based on bibliographical reviews, documents, articles, theses, dissertations, among others, to provide the necessary foundations about the proposed theme.
A debate and collection of the information were carried out for this study in works that refer to the production of Açaí in the municipality of Abaetetuba, mesoregion in northeastern Para state which was chosen because it is one of the major municipalities in production, extraction, and processing of the Açaí fruit. The IBGE (2019) ranking highlights that the municipality is third in the state and national production with 111,200 tons, behind the municipalities of Igarapé-Miri with 400,000 tons and Cametá with 159,450 tons.

Study Area
The 2020 IBGE census indicates that the municipality has an area of 1,610.654 km² with an estimated population of 159,080 inhabitants, according to 2019 data, the average monthly salary was 1.6 minimum wages, with a proportion of 7.5% of employed people, in face of the total population (IBGE, 2021). jas.ccsenet.

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The Agrowhose inco lived and w to produce began to c agricultura Over the last 20 years, institutions dedicated to research with the support of Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (ATER) have sought to promote and encourage rural producers to apply sustainable management in the production of Açaí, considering that it is an activity that seeks to provide the economic and social development of the location and reduce environmental impacts, considering that the practice of handling techniques with low impact on the environment will result in a higher yield production (Nogueira, 1997).
Despite the evolution of technologies (equipment and processes) much has to be done regarding the process of implementing sustainable management in the Abaetetuba region, given that the areas are native to islands, the difficulty in accessing the communities, regarding the reception and dissemination of information alluding to the use of technical and scientific guidelines, impacting the production by not following the assessed information (Tagore et al., 2018).

Intensive management in Açai Production and the Risks to the Environment
As the consumption of acai has increased in the market, the extraction of the fruit and palm heart led to the felling of the Açai palm areas, as the greater use of labor is a characteristic of the intensive management without many innovative techniques and technologies. Such methods lead to direct impacts on production and the environment, considering that there is greater destruction of vegetation and, consequently, mangroves, as this is characteristic of the land in the municipality of Abaetetuba.
Other issues resulting from the use of intensive management are related to the depredation of other species, causing erosion and consequently the siltation of rivers that affect the image of the environment (Kato & Azevedo, 2007).
Given these problems with the environment and production caused by the use of this type of management, the economic impacts stand out, as low production means that local riverside dwellers no longer have a way to obtain income, which has a social impact due to the imbalance in the distribution of income, resulting in their failure to provide their children with education, hygiene, and adequate food and, consequently, it will lead to an increase in the exploitation of other environmental resources, increasing its depreciation.
The effects that may be generated by this type of extraction generate opportunities and threats. Such debate is due to the fact of deciding to take an opportunity without evaluating the risks and as a consequence lead to large losses (Tagore et al., 2018;Beck, 2010).
Firstly, this type of production is intended for the maintenance of local subsistence, that is, it would be a production to produce food for local families, where a large production is not needed and becomes a sustainable production based on a smaller demand (Tagore, 2017). Thus, it should not be applied to greater demand, considering that it will need a greater production capacity, which requires the application of production based on sustainable management that requires financial investments for its application.
However, it should be pointed out that the current changes in the configuration of the natural Açai palm areas environment put at risk the sustainability of the floodplain ecosystem as a whole, as well as the homogenization of the landscape (Oliveira & Net, 2005).

The Importance of the Sustainable Management of Açai
Management is a technique aimed at preserving and renewing productive resources, whose principle is to guarantee production for a long-term cycle, which will provide production sustainability (Soares et al., 2020). The objective of sustainable management is to preserve the resources that are the basis for the production of family farming and other means of production. Adequate management can provide continuous production and prevent resource depletion and environmental degradation.
The concept of management seeks to elucidate the importance of ensuring adequate production with the environment and ensuring that future generations can use the environmental resources, without affecting production in the present. Therefore, it is worth noting that riverside dwellers have implemented three types of management: 1) Intensive Management: it tends to eliminate all vegetation, preserving only the Açaí trees; 2) Intermediate management: species that do not have monetary value and/or utility for families are eliminated; 3) Moderate Management: in this case, only a few species of flora are removed (Grossmann et al., 2004).
The application of management becomes important for the maintenance of Açaí production, as its extraction has provided the state of Pará and riverside families with their economic development, through the generation of income and jobs, considering that the fruit has become one of the main sources of nutrients and that wins the international market (Oliveira & Net, 2005)  and extraction ialization of th e production c nd and cultura motion of finan duction but als that in the for k (2011), risks space that they relationship be elf-evident.
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