Overview

This work sought to identify factors that condition the agricultural management carried out by rural producers in two small watersheds in the municipality of Paragominas (PA) and the impacts of these practices on water conservation and quality. To this end, the study related water quality in various stretches of watercourse to land use; it also compared, based on secondary data, water flows between the vegetation and the atmosphere for the different land uses. The main conditioning factors identified were: land use and property management; non-compliance with environmental legislation relating to the conservation of water and forest resources; economic interests to the detriment of sustainability and the absence of an integrated view of the landscape for the adoption of conservation practices. It was found that the drop in water quality in these basins occurs in different ways.