ARTICLES Local Perception of Environmental Change in a Semi-Arid Area of Northeast Brazil: A New Approach for the Use of Participatory Methods at the Level of Family Units Shana Sampaio Sieber • Patrı ´cia Muniz Medeiros • Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque Accepted: 14 June 2010 / Published online: 3 July 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract The diversity of plant resources in the Brazilian semi-arid region is being compromised by practices related to agriculture, pastures, and forest har- vesting, especially in areas containing Caatinga vegetation (xeric shrublands and thorn forests). The impact of these practices constitutes a series of complex factors involving local issues, creating a need for further scientific studies on the social- environmental dynamics of natural resource use. Through participatory methods, the present study analyzed people’s representations about local environmental change processes in the Brazilian semi-arid region, taking into consideration local production systems, natural resources, and their importance. Environmental his- torical graphs were developed with nine local families to analyze landscape changes with regard to cultivated areas and pastures, and their relationship with the avail- ability of native vegetation. Punctuation exercises were performed to observe the importance of each unit that supplied native and cultivated resources. The avail- ability of native resources in the environment is subject to stability, as observed by a majority of the local families. The role of the production units (crops and pastures) was emphasized by most families in the study, especially because of the need for products for subsistence needs and income generation. The current decline of such practices is a consequence of an exodus of field workers and also relates to the conservation of native species that otherwise would have been deforested in favor of agricultural practices. S. S. Sieber (&) Á P. M. Medeiros Á U. P. Albuquerque Laborato ´rio de Etnobota ˆnica Aplicada, Departamento de Biologia, A ´ rea de Bota ˆnica, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Rua Dom Manoel de Medeiros, s/n, Dois Irma ˜os, Recife, PE 5271-900, Brazil e-mail: shanasieber@yahoo.com.br P. M. Medeiros e-mail: patricia.muniz@gmail.com U. P. Albuquerque e-mail: upa@db.ufrpe.br 123 J Agric Environ Ethics (2011) 24:511–531 DOI 10.1007/s10806-010-9277-z