The human populations of the Brazilian semiarid region interact strongly with the avifauna throughout the entire occupation of its territory. These interactions were established in a context of adverse edaphoclimatic conditions that limited crop production and socioeconomic welfare, making the uses of birds as food and income frequent excuses to label them as important subsistence resources. It is relevant to know whether such interactions today are still influenced by socioeconomic factors and in what way. Semistructured questionnaires were applied to 105 residents, 45 men and 60 women, in rural communities of Casa Nova, Bahia state. Correlation analysis and regression models were performed to verify how the socioeconomic variables 'gender', 'age', 'education', 'monthly income' and 'residence time' of respondents explain the variation in the number of known species and the acknowledgement of the ecological importance of the birds. There were 840 bird citations, corresponding to 60 species. A correlation between age, income, residence time in the region and the number of species mentioned arouse, but there was no correlation with the acknowledgement of the ecological importance of the species. Men cited significantly more bird species than women. The results also indicate a low level of knowledge about bird species among younger populations. Socioeconomic factors strongly influence people's knowledge of bird species in their region. Exposure to wild birds and experience with it, gender, education and income together influence the knowledge about the diversity of this group.

Os agrotóxicos garantem o aumento da produtividade agrícola, porém podem afetar os seres vivos, causando intoxicações e contaminando o meio ambiente. Nesse sentido, este trabalho realizou um levantamento no ano de 2010, em Casa Nova (BA), acerca dos aspectos socioeconômicos, da percepção de risco e das práticas de uso dos agrotóxicos. Constatou-se que a maioria dos manipuladores de agrotóxicos são homens, com faixa etária acima de 50 anos, analfabetos ou com as primeiras séries do Ensino Fundamental, detêm renda familiar inferior a um salário mínimo e atuam a mais de 20 anos em atividades agrícolas. Quanto à utilização, 98% utilizam agrotóxicos e apenas 2% realizam controle biológico. A maioria não conhece nenhuma das classes de toxidade dos agroquímicos e usam, principalmente, agrotóxicos pertencentes à classe II (altamente tóxicos), muitos não utilizam os equipamentos de proteção individual ou os utilizam de maneira incompleta. A maioria deles conhece o procedimento de tríplice lavagem e o correto destino das embalagens vazias de agrotóxicos que aprenderam na loja de fertilizantes, porém, apenas 42% o fazem.

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