This doctoral dissertation research project examines how the establishment of marine extractive reserves (MER) affects livelihood strategies of resource users and investigates how livelihood strategies are lived as compared with the way such strategies were framed by MER institutional frameworks. As a type of community-based conservation strategy, the establishment of marine extractive reserves aims to protect biodiversity as well as traditional communities and their livelihoods. By considering the case of the Cassurubá MER in northeast Brazil, the institutions of the MER and the processes and territorial practices surrounding its establishment will be examined through a combination of an analysis of planning and management documents, household surveys, and interviews with key actors. This mixed methods approach will illuminate how resource users have used livelihood strategies to contest or adjust to what was expected in the institutional construction of the MER, and by extension, of this type of community-based conservation strategy.
This research has the potential to inform conservation initiatives and policy. MERs are being widely implemented in places throughout the world where traditional livelihoods and conservation need to coexist. It will also inform scholarship and research, likely suggesting that a more flexible approach in the institutional framing of extractive reserves will permit a closer alignment with the actual livelihood practices of resource users. The household livelihood data will be used to create a 'Livelihoods Teaching Module' to be implemented in an undergraduate course at Texas A&M University. Through the engagement with this model students will discover the processes that influence the livelihoods of small-scale resource users in Latin America and elsewhere. The research findings will be shared with the resource users of the MER, local key actors, and will be broadly disseminated via scientific conferences and publications. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish an independent research career.
The main objective of the project is to determine how establishment of marine extractive reserves (RESEX) in northeast Brazil affected the livelihoods of resource users of the area. The RESEX conservation instrument was intended to protect the livelihoods of traditional populations and the resources they depend upon and result in co-management of RESEX. In the case of the Cassurubá RESEX, the research determined several impacts on fishermen and farmers resulting from diverse livelihood practices within the terrestrial and marine spaces of the RESEX. First, new rules have prohibited farming practices and forced subsistence households to buy produce from external markets. Second, private landowners no longer have the same ownership rights to their land. Third, new fishery laws restricting number of nets and mesh size have caused major financial losses for fishermen who fish with nets. Finally, these consequences are incentive deficient and lack compensation for losses. Although there are long term plans to deliver benefits to some resource users such as housing, potable water and sanitation, in the interim resource user livelihoods have been compromised. These results are informative to conservation policy and indicate that livelihood systems of resource users, of potential RESEX or other reserves, should be researched more carefully prior to establishment. Furthermore, this research is instructive to the broader conservation and development field including educational institutions that focus on conservation and policy. The findings of this research will be used in a WebGIS livelihoods learning module accessible to undergraduate students at Texas A&M University. The learning objectives of the module are to understanding how livelihoods and resources are related in developing countries, appreciate how environmental conservation policies influence livelihoods, and determine unintended social consequences of environmental conservation. The module will generate creative and critical thinking on how to avoid adverse consequences to livelihoods while meeting the needs of both conservation and development.
