ABSTRACT
This paper applies a participatory approach in evaluating small-scale fisheries, focusing on the Arapaima gigas fishery in the Brazilian Amazon. The evaluation uses the social-ecological system (SES) framework, adopted to explain the conditions needed for sustainability and user cooperation in natural resources management, as a more suitable alternative to the 'blueprint' or 'panaceas' approaches, based only on property rights or governmental intervention. However, managers and users often do not have the necessary information compiled and available for a specific SES while some actions need to be taken immediately. Thus, consensus and negotiation among stakeholders about SES variables may be useful to evaluate system performance and indicate actions to promote sustainability. In the case study, using a consensus-building model, we found that arapaima SES leads to sustainability and is far from being a case of 'tragedy of the commons.' More investments in suitable monitoring and enforcement for adaptive management are recommended. Adopting an SES framework based on stakeholders' prospects may be useful until complete interdisciplinary studies become available so as to seek of sustainability in the long term.
Subject(s)
Conservation of Natural Resources/methods , Fisheries , Animals , Brazil , Ecosystem , Fishes , Humans , Models, Theoretical , NegotiatingABSTRACT
During the last 20 years, the Amazon region has been at the same time a place of massive ecological and social change and a laboratory of experiments aimed at promoting sustainable development. Policies and project initiatives involving diverse social groups and environmental contexts have been implemented across the region. They have resulted in mixed outcomes and trade-offs between social and environmental dimensions, making their impact at the local level difficult to assess and their successes difficult to generalize. The objective of the DURAMAZ research project was to provide a better understanding of these impacts. It produced a multi-dimensional indicator system designed to allow a holistic view of sustainable development at local and subregional levels and a comparative perspective across 12 research sites, from an isolated indigenous village to smallholders and agribusiness areas in Mato Grosso. The results of the first observation campaign (2007-2009) show that despite the claim of promoting sustainable development, no project was able to untie the 'Gordian knot' of development in the Amazon. Communities continue to face the old dilemma of either enjoying a preserved ecosystem but enduring adverse life conditions, or enjoying better living at the expense of forest cover. Another finding is that the subregional context is very important in shaping the impacts of regional policies. Thus, the same policy will not always have the same effect, depending on in which context it is applied. Finally, we found that cultural factors and a sense of place play a more important role than economic factors when it comes to the way people evaluate their own situation. This research provides the basis for a second phase of the project (2012-2016) in which we will continue to expand our sample and to refine our methodologies with the goal of transforming the initiative into a network of observatories of sustainable development in the Amazon.
Subject(s)
Conservation of Natural Resources/methods , Ecosystem , Interdisciplinary Communication , Social Change , Agriculture/methods , Brazil , Commerce , Cultural Diversity , Environmental Policy , Humans , Quality of Life , Reproducibility of Results , Research DesignABSTRACT
Aborda aspectos como as estratégias de sobrevivência, as trajetórias de vida, as relaçoes com o meio urbano oficial, os impasses das políticas públicas e, sobretudo, os desafios teórico-conceituais da explicaçao desse fenômeno. As pesquisas teóricas e empíricas que servem de base aos trabalhos chamaram a atençao para um fenômeno que nao é recente, mas que está em franco crescimento: a relaçao direta entre a vida no meio da rua e a sobrevivência a partir da coleta de materiais de lixo. Este imbrincamento entre os rejeitos físicos - o lixo - e humanos - os excluídos - da sociedade revela uma dimensao perversa da modernidade: o aumento da produçao de bens com componentes cada vez mais descartáveis, paralelamente ao aumento da produçao de desempregados - dois elementos dialeticamente conexos.
