SUBJECT: Biodiversity and Local or Native inhabitants: How to Increase Mutual Benefits
AUTHOR: Alpina Begossi
DATE: 23rd April 2003

KEYWORDS: Sustainable reserve, extractive reserves, governmental institutions, conservation plans.

SUMMARY: One of the main challenges for the conservation of the biodiversity is to include, in management projects or plans, the population that already lives in high biodiversity areas.

Studies on riverine inhabitants of Amazon rivers, such as Juruá, Negro, as well as the Araguaia-Tocantins Basin (1,2) and on coastal fishermen of the Atlantic Forest coast (3,4) have shown their uses and rules concerning the local natural resources.

Certainly, not all forms of uses of natural resources depend on local established rules (or customary laws), and some technologies used depend on maintaining a low population density in order to be considered ecologically safe. But in places where we find rules concerning the use of natural resources, these rules should be taken into account and considered in conservation plans.

Examples of such rules are:
- Informal division of fishing areas, decreasing impact per area;
- Use of a high diversity of vegetal resources, diminishing impact per species;
- Food taboos, possibly diminishing impact in game or fish species.

In a megadiverse country (such as Brazil), governmental institutions should be more concerned in:
- Finding out what kind of resources are used and extracted;
- Finding out the local rules;
- Consulting researchers in universities that carry out research in high biodiversity areas;
- Establishing legitimate contact with local institutions, avoiding the common top-down approaches currently carried out in most Brazilian sites.

There are successful examples in the Amazon that have been taking into account the suggestions given above, which are the Sustainable Reserve of Mamirauá, led by the Sociedade Civil Mamirauá, and the Upper Juruá Extractive Reserve, led by the Rubber Tapper National Council. The definition of a Sustainable Reserve includes (www.mamirauá.org.br):
- The maintenance of the local population that participates in the management of the natural resources and in the reserve surveillance;
- The possibility to manage plants and animals based on solid scientific research;
- Flexibility to change economic strategies according to markets;
- Maintenance of private property;
- Implementation of programs that enhance the life of the local population;
- The establishment of partnerships with governmental and non-governmental organizations for developing programs for the sustainable use of natural resources.

In the case of Extractive Reserves, there is a high variety of forms in Brazil, but a few should be considered as the result of legitimate processes, as was the case of the Upper Juruá Extractive Reserve (2). Recently, diverse top-down extractive reserves have appeared in coastal areas, where there is no local prior demand for conservation, and sometimes, neither a local organization. The success of conservation will depend upon the perception people will have on the possibility of resource scarcity, on their local demand or organization for that, on the use of local rules associated (or that could be associated) with conservation measures, with the interaction with research institutions, and with the support from governmental agencies for measures that conserve the natural resources.

REFERENCES:
1. Begossi, A., Hens, L. 2000 (eds.). Local knowledge in the tropics: relevance to conservation and management. Guest editors: Alpina Begossi and Luc Hens. Volume special (special issue) de Environment, development and sustainability 2(3-4). Kluwer academic publishers.
2. Begossi, A. , Silvano R.A.M., Amaral B.D. & Oyakawa, O. 1999. Uses of fish and game by inhabitants of an extractive reserve (Upper Juruá, Acre, Brazil). Environment, development and sustainability 1: 1-21.
3. Begossi, A., Hanazaki, N. & Tamashiro, J. Y. 2002. Medicinal plants in the Atlantic forest (Brazil): Knowledge, use, and conservation. Human ecology 30(3): 281-299.
4. Begossi, A. 2001. Mapping spots: fishing areas and territories in the Atlantic forest coast, Brazil. Regional environmental change, 2: 1-12.

A contribution by:
Alpina Begossi
Nepam Unicamp CP
6166 Campinas
SP 13081-970