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 situatedin north-western Brazil (about 1600 km from the mouth of the Amazonas River). Theflooded forest of the reserve is an area of high biodiversity. About 1,600local people live within the reserve focal area and 4,401 around it. Theydepend on fish, some agriculture and timber extraction to survive.

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

Key findings from the experience of community fisheriesand forestry include:

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

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

• creating a consistent policy and legalenvironment that balances the needs of local groups and that of government,with the help of external organisations if necessary
• addressing the ‘governance gap’ in neglectedareas by patiently building on existing processes, linking them with livelihoodactivities and carefully involving the most marginalised groups
• enforcing rules and surveillance in aparticipatory manner, with compensation for local volunteers, as a partnershipbetween communities and the authorities
• introducing alternative sustainable livelihoodssuch as ecotourism, with the help of grants if necessary in remote areas
• ensuring clear understanding of thedonor-partner relationship, which should be sustainable, with incentives toattract qualified staff
• fulfilling donor responsibilities using anawareness of local context, appropriate project time frames and protectingsuccessful projects from changes in donor policy or staff.