Abstract
The ten years between the first and second conferences have been a time of considerable importance for the conservation of the Amazon várzea based on the comanagement of floodplain resources. This paper describes the development of a regional comanagement system in the Lower Amazon várzea. The comanagement system has grown out of the grassroots movement, known as the “acordos de pesca,” in which floodplain communities asserted control over their traditional lake fisheries. In the 1990s these agreements provided the basis for IBAMA’s development of a community-based comanagement policy for floodplain fisheries. The evolving várzea comanagement system has developed in three phases: (1) IBAMA developed and implemented a fisheries comanagement pollcy in the Santarém region; (2) individual várzea communities and the Public Ministry negotiated agreements, Termos de Ajuste de Conduta (TACS), with local cattle owners to regulate cattle grazing on community grasslands;, and (3) these comanagement agreements were integrated into a more comprehensive land tenure and settlement policy based on the Projeto de Assentamento Agroextractivista (PAEs). Thus far 41 várzea PAEs have been created, including some 13,000 families and covering a total area of 740,000 ha in eight Lower Amazonian municipalities. These PAEs are now in the process of preparing the Utilization and Settlement Development Plans needed to obtain environmental licences. A major long-term investment is needed to take advantage of this process and integrate these PAEs into municipal and regional comanagement institutions.
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Notes
- 1.
We use the term participatory management to cover situations in which resource users have a significant role in management of the resource, including community management and comanagement.
- 2.
In many ways this paper is a sequel to McGrath et al. (2004), which examines the development of the comanagement system and evaluates its performance.
- 3.
For now the only species being managed for commercial objectives is the pirarucu. Management of caiman has been tested at Mamirauá. Work with turtles is conservation-oriented, as commercial management is not yet permitted.
- 4.
The GRPU is the regional office of the SPU, Serviço de Patrimônio da União, responsible for all federal properties, including the floodplain.
- 5.
For example, people with more than one property would have to give up one of their properties. Since a significant number of smallholders have more than one property, this alternative would not be accepted by floodplain land owners.
- 6.
The Maicá Regional Fisheries Council district adjacent to Ituqui will be divided into two parts. The várzea portion will be annexed to the Ituqui PAE, while the terra firme portion is in the process of being transformed into a Quilombo. The other two Regional Fisheries Councils, Arapixuna and Lago Grande de Ciuruai, will be dealt with differently because virtually all settlement in these districts is located on the uplands and is therefore part of existing upland INCRA settlements.
- 7.
Members include: INCRA; IBAMA; SPU/GRPU (voting); EMATER; EMBRAPA; STR (Rural Workers’ Union); Z-20 (Fishers’ Union); SIRSAN (Union representing large rural landowners); IPAM (NGO); SEMAB (Municipal Secretary of Agriculture) (nonvoting).
- 8.
Managing wild populations of these species is not yet legal; however, a number of communities have begun monitoring local caiman populations, and/or protecting turtle nesting beaches and/or managing capybara populations, and would like to include rules for these activities in the Utilization Plans. IBAMA is currently evaluating the development of criteria and procedures for permitting the management of wild populations of some species of commercial value.
- 9.
It is not clear how these contradictory institutional positions will be resolved. A document has been signed that includes IBAMA in the review process for Use Plans, and IBAMA could reject Use Plans that exclude outsiders.
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The research on which this paper is based was supported by WWF, EC Tropical Forest Program, and CNPq/PPG-7.
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McGrath, D.G., da Gama, S.P., Cardoso, A., Almeida, O., Benatti, J.H. (2011). Integrating Comanagement and Land Tenure Policies for the Sustainable Management of the Lower Amazon Floodplain. In: Pinedo-Vasquez, M., Ruffino, M., Padoch, C., Brondízio, E. (eds) The Amazon Várzea . Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0146-5_9
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