Balancing biodiversity and local development in the Amazon

Balancing environmental preservation with the needs of local people is an enormous challenge in areas of high biodiversity. This is even more difficult if there is pressure on resources from outsiders. The Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in Brazil has many lessons for those seeking to achieve this balance.

The Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve is situated in north-western Brazil (about 1600 km from the mouth of the Amazonas River). The flooded forest of the reserve is an area of high biodiversity. About 1,600 local people live within the reserve focal area and 4,401 around it. They depend on fish, some agriculture and timber extraction to survive.

In 1996, Mamirauá was designated a Sustainable Development Reserve. The creation of the Reserve was a result of the partnership between scientists, who established the Sociedade Civil Mamirauá (SCM) in 1992, and the local communities. A report from the International Institute for Environment and Development, UK, presents lessons learnt from a decade of the SCM’s work in Mamirauá. The SCM aimed to provide a working model for people in protected areas, in which sustainable livelihoods could be generated for poor and marginalised groups living in areas of high biodiversity.

Key findings from the experience of community fisheries and forestry include:

• Using a familiar method of resource management, possibly combining science and traditional knowledge, is likely to be more accepted and successful in the long term.
• Concentrating on a particular area to establish a working model is a good way to start.
• Successful projects are a crucial way of influencing policy and legislative changes.
• Marketing is vital for fishery and forestry products, and involves identifying markets and training people.
• Self-appraisal by those involved in projects helps improve their performance.
• Information obtained from monitoring can help to refine regulations.

The scientists realised that without the involvement of local people in the management of Mamirauá, its long-term viability would be threatened, not least by external commercial interests. With donor help, the SCM promoted sustainable community management of resources. The benefits of this proved to be an incentive to involve locals in surveillance and conservation activities. The authors identify broad areas to be addressed in replicating projects such as that in Mamirauá:

• creating a consistent policy and legal environment that balances the needs of local groups and that of government, with the help of external organisations if necessary
• addressing the ‘governance gap’ in neglected areas by patiently building on existing processes, linking them with livelihood activities and carefully involving the most marginalised groups
• enforcing rules and surveillance in a participatory manner, with compensation for local volunteers, as a partnership between communities and the authorities
• introducing alternative sustainable livelihoods such as ecotourism, with the help of grants if necessary in remote areas
• ensuring clear understanding of the donor-partner relationship, which should be sustainable, with incentives to attract qualified staff
• fulfilling donor responsibilities using an awareness of local context, appropriate project time frames and protecting successful projects from changes in donor policy or staff.

Source(s):
‘Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, Brazil: Lessons Learnt in Integrating Conservation with Poverty Reduction’, Biodiversity and Livelihoods Issues No. 7, IIED: London, by Izabella Koziell and Cristina Y.A. Inoue, 2006 (PDF) Full document.

Funded by: UK Department for International Development (DFID)

id21 Research Highlight: 22 September 2006

Further Information:
Izabella Koziell
Department for International Development
1 Palace Street
London, SW1E 5HE
UK

Tel: + 44 (0)20 7023 0000
Fax: + 44 (0)20 7023 0019
Contact the contributor: i-koziell@dfid.gov.uk

International Institute for Environment and Development, UK

Cristina Y. A. Inoue
Instituto de Relações Internacionais – Universidade de Brasília
Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro - Prédio do IREL 1o andar - Gleba A
Asa Norte – Brasília, DF
Caixa Postal 04306
CEP 70919-970
Brazil

Tel: +55 61 3274 7167 or +55 61 3307 2426 ext. 232
Contact the contributor: cris1999@unb.br

International Institute for Environment and Development
3 Endsleigh Street
London WC1H 0DD
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)20 7388 2117
Fax: +44 (0)20 7388 2826
Contact the contributor: info@iied.org

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