Three success factors for the conservation of the Rio Negro Basin in the Brazilian Amazon: Governance and participation, public-private alliances, and conservation mosaics
Full Solution
Unini RESEX
Fabiano Silva
This solution promotions local participation, to guarantee access to natural resources in the zone adjacent to the Jaú National Park. This coupled with the application of a conservation mosaic approach, to consolidate a more extensive protected territory; and the inclusion of the Park in a State Program for the conservation of tropical forests, with public, private and international funding, have been key factors for the conservation of the Black River basin of the Amazon.
Last update: 05 Oct 2020
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Context
Challenges addressed
The Jaú National Park faced the challenge of strong socio-environmental conflicts due to its creation as a strict-protection área management category in a territory with a historical presence of local and afro-descendent communities. Historically, the Jaú and the Unini have been two of the most productive rivers in Río Negro. Both were self-sustainable food production sources, but since the first Jesuit occupation in Río Negro, the activities of fishing, small-scale agriculture and forest resource extraction increased. Also, this National Park’s strict-protection category does not allow it to have human population, and the government has conducted expropriations on people living in Jaú, limiting the rights of use of its resources.
Location
Jaú National Park, Novo Airão - State of Amazonas, Brazil
South America
Process
Summary of the process
After the enactment of the National System of Conservation Unitis, and with the technical and financial support of local organizations such as the Vitória Amazônica Foundation (FVA) and the Amazon Region Protected Areas Program (ARPA), the Unini River RESEX was created through a request of the local communities. For this purpose, the FVA provided a space for knowledge exchange among other extractive reserves and the communities of the Unini River, providing support for the creation of the Residents’ Association of the Unini River (AMORU). This, in turn, after a process of public consultation, made the formal request to create the Unini River RESEX. The FVA support also contributed to organizational and local capacity strengthening for sustainable use of natural resources and local development. As a consequence, governance and participation of local actors in the decision-making processes within the conservation units is improving, which is the foundation for an efficient management of protected areas and the implementation of a conservation mosaic approach the integrates them as units in a larger territory.
Building Blocks
Local participation to guarantee access to natural resources and land possession
In 1979, the area presently occupied by the Jaú National Park was proposed as a Biological Reserve, a management category that is restrictive toward exploitation of natural resources in Brazil. In 1980, the Jaú National Park was created, and since then it has the challenge of managing the high level of socio-environmental conflict in the area.
The Vitória Amazônica Foundation (FVA), with presence in the area since 1991, has applied innovative and participatory mapping methodologies for natural resources use, which were the basis for the development of its zoning and Management Plan, between 1996 and 1998, within a co-management contract with the Federal Government of Brazil. Years later, Brazil created the National System of Conservation Units (SNUC) and developed tools for building participatory processes. As a result, the FVA, as the technical collaborating institution of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) provided support to local communities during the creation of the Unini River Extractive Reserve (RESEX), in a process that lasted until 2006, with the intention of guaranteeing access to natural resources and land tenure for the populations in the Jaú and Unini rivers.
Enabling factors
- Creation of the National System of Conservation Units (SNUC).
- Promotion of social participation in the management of conservation units (UC).
- Development of tools for socio-environmental conflicts management.
- Technical and financial support for training procceses between protected area managers and local representatives.
- Creation of the Residents’ Association of the Unini River (AMORU) for the creation of the Unini River RESEX.
Lesson learned
The creation of the Unini River RESEX required a participatory process that allowed negotiating and defining with the local communities a set of favorable conditions to enable the design and application of consultation mechanisms, natural resources use zoning, and the creation of participatory organisms such as the RESEX Deliberative Council, in 2008.
The first step was the creation of the AMORU, which in turn made the formal request for the creation of the RESEX. After that, a public consultation process was developed in the local communities, to underwrite the creation of the Reserve. Once the reserve was created, the Chico Méndez Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), an institution connected with the Ministry of the Environment, together with the FVA, began the management processes. Among this was the formation of the Deliberative Council, integrated by representatives of government agencies, civil society organizations, and local population representative of the area.
Governance and participation of local actors in the management and use of natural resources
Through the process of the Unini River Extractive Reserve (RESEX) creation, and under the framework of the contract for the co-management of the Jaú National Park, the FVA implemented innovative and participative mapping methodologies for the use of natural resources, and has been investing in a process of organizational and local capacity strengthening for sustainable use of natural resources. Among them is the development and implementation of a methodology for the use of natural resources (SIMUR) in the Unini River. This served as input for a process in 2008, after the creation of the RESEX, with the development and implementation of “Terms of Commitment” with the local communities of the Unini River. These documents represent a series of agreements among the six communities living along the Unini River in the Jaú National Park and the Government of Brazil. The goal of these agreements was to regulate their permanence in the Park and to establish a co-management process with the local population and the Park administration. As a result, community participation in the decision-making processes in both conservation units (Jaú National Park and Unini River RESEX) was and is fundamental to the efficient management of both areas.
Enabling factors
- Development of tools focused on socio-environmental conflict management.
- Promotion of social participation in the management of conservation units.
- Zoning of the protected area use and exploitation established with three distinct categories and implemented in territory thanks to a robust participatory process.
- Creation of the Unini River Mixed Agricultural Extractive Cooperative (COOMARU) for the use of natural resources.
Lesson learned
Different planning processes for the management of both conservation units have allowed moving forward in the organizational and local capacity building strengthening for the development of economic activities. For example, the COOMARU was created, dedicated to the fair trade of Brazilian walnuts and the development of basic infrastructure to storage and benefit agricultural extractive producers. Besides that, local residents are the main source of information on use of natural resources. Therefore, the programs and projects that promote community participation in data gathering, systematization, storage, and analysis, have the potential to transform the management process of conservation units, as they organize and classify the information about production and subsistence activities within and around these areas. In this way, the dynamics of training community monitors and residents contribute to form up community leaders in charged of the protected area management.
Resources
ARPA: the most important conservation program for tropical rainforests in Brazil, and mechanisms of financial sustainability of the Jaú National Park
The Jaú National Park represents one of the largest extensions of protected tropical rainforests in the world, protecting a great extent of the Aguas Negras river basin. Due to its prominence, this protected area was prioritized by the Amazon Region Protected Areas Program (ARPA), a program created in 2002 by the Brazilian Government and managed by the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (Funbio).
The ARPA program has the financial backing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the German Government, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Amazon Fund, through the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), the Moore Foundation, and currently, private companies that act as donors to the program. The program is designed to last 13 years, and it’s aimed at expanding and strengthening the Brazilian National System of Protected Areas in the Amazon, through the protection of 60 million hectares of conservation units in the Amazonian biome, and ensuring financial resources for the management of those areas in the short and long run. It is implemented in three independent and continuous phases: Phase I between 2003 and 2010, Phase II between 2010 and 2015, and Phase III with a deadline of 25 years.
Enabling factors
- National context of greater concern for the preservation of the Amazon region and sustainable development, with the global acknowledgment of the importance of tropical rainforests.
- Elaboration of regional public policies for the conservation and sustainable use of tropical rainforests.
- ARPA Program Budget for 2003-2015, of 236 million dollars.
Lesson learned
The inclusion of the Jaú National Park in the ARPA program was an essential strategy for its conservation, given that ARPA is one of the largest programs in the world for the conservation of tropical rainforests, implementing a model that ensures the quick and effective gathering and application of financial resources.
During Phase I, ARPA was dedicated to the creation of new protected areas. During Phase II, it was focused on consolidating the program. Phase III is aimed at consolidating 60 million hectares of protected areas in the Amazon at a Federal and National level, and reaching financial sustainability.
The support provided by ARPA made possible the creation of the Unini River RESEX, consolidating the RESEX and the Jaú National Park through the funding of projects that enabled the generation of conservation value and increasing the financial income of local communities. This contributes to the sustainability of both conservation units at a social, financial, and management level.
Conservation mosaics: An effective strategy to consolidate great expanses of protected territory in Brazil
The National System of Protected Areas Act, enacted in July of 2000, established the Conservation Mosaic Approach. Mosaics are a “set of Conservation Units (UC) of equal or different category that are close, adjoining or overlapping, and other public or private protected areas” that are managed in an integrated manner, according to the goals of each UC.
To address the challenge of managing socio-environmental conflicts and optimizing human, financial, and material resources, the Bajo Río Negro Conservation Mosaic was established in 2010, with a total area of 7,329,220 hectares, and integrated by 11 UC, among them the Jaú National Park and the Unini RESEX. The implementation of this approach prioritizes conservation processes for larger areas, which allows for landscape integrated management of areas along the Jaú and Unini rivers to the north, and the Bajo Río Negro to the south of the mosaic. By viewing the protected areas like parts of a larger unit, functional and interconnected, it was necessary to include a participatory methodology in the design of management plans, that encouraged the participation of multiple actors in the decision-making process related to the administration of the territory and its natural resources.
Enabling factors
- The Conservation Mosaic management approach enables the integration of multiple actors and opportunities of technical and financial assistance for territorial management.
- Linkage of efforts in areas with a shared territorial identity, to achieve a common goal of conservation and sustainable management of natural resources.
- Institutionalization of an Advisory Council as a mobilizing force in the area.
- Strategy planning at a landscape scale.
Lesson learned
The key elements for the integrated landsape management included the implementation of an Action Plan for the mosaic, the creation of an Advisory Council to support decision-making, the development of participatory methodologies for zoning community use and subsistance areas, and the strengthening of local capacities through training processes for natural resources management, sustainable agriculture, tourism, and rights and obligations of the local communities.
The benefits of integrated management are: resource optimization; integrated landscape planning; coordinating protection activities; environmental education, monitoring and awareness in the region; the possibility of developing an integrated territorial identity based on the characteristics of the region; the development of unified strategies for the valorization of products for communities around and inside the conservation units; and the facilitation of agreements and conflict resolution.
Impacts
- The creation of the Unini River Extractive Reserve as a result of a public consultation process, with the participation of local communities.
- The creation of an innovative mapping and use zoning methodology that enabled to work with people with varying levels of illiteracy.
- The strengthening of organizations and local capacities to allow the local communities to develop alternative productive activities.
- Projects for local development and natural resources management in communities contribute to a better comprehension of management strategies for protected areas, which has a positive impact on the negotiation ability of local communities.
- The consolidation of the Jaú National Park and the Unini River Extractive Reserve as participatory drivers in management plans design and land-use planning.
- The inclusion of both protected areas in the Low Rio Negro Conservation Mosaic.
- Integrated landscape management and planning, which allows for resource optimization and coordination of protection activities, environmental education, monitoring, and awareness campaigns within the region.
- Work under a consolidated territorial identity, based on the characteristics of the region, which allowed integrating multiple factors and generating better opportunities for technical and financial support for territorial management.
Beneficiaries
The Unini River has ten communities and approximately 186 families dedicated to fishing and family-scale agriculture. Three of these communities are located inside the RESEX, and six in the National Park.
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 3 – Good health and well-being
SDG 11 – Sustainable cities and communities
SDG 15 – Life on land
Story
Fabiano Silva, Coordinador Ejecutivo Fundación Victoria Amazónica
Fabiano Silva
“The Vitória Amazônica Foundation (FVA) started working in the Jaú National Park in 1991, ten years after the park´s creation. During the first years, we developed a research mapping process for natural resources use by the local communities and we elaborated the Park´s Management Plan, within a co-management contract with the Federal Government during 1996 and 1998. A few years after finishing the Management Plan, we began the process to create the Conservation Unit (the Unini River Extractive Reserve) in a process that continued until 2006, which helped the communities living in the Unini River to have their rights guaranteed for access to land and natural resources.
After the creation of the Unini River RESEX, ICMBio began the management processes, that is, the elaboration of the Management Plan and the creation of the Deliberative Council of the unit, with the support of the FVA as a technical ally of the ICMBio and the local communities. Nowadays we implement a natural resources monitoring system that fulfills two objectives. One, that the local communities know their own dynamics of use of natural resources so that they can reach a higher level of management autonomy. The other, to provide the Federal Government with better knowledge about resources use for the Park’s management and biodiversity. Besides that, we also began a series of projects to benefit the communities. For example, the production of chestnuts, ornamental fishing management, agricultural products, and tourism services.
One of the strongest issues we have experienced over the last 15 years has been the lack of personnel in the protected areas and their sporadic rotation, which causes existing procedures to stop. This has been the case mainly for the Jaú Park, as the RESEX has been much more stable. It is in this area that the Foundation contributes, by allowing some of the processes to work with greater independence from the Government and to continue functioning thanks to our cooperation, in such a way the level of constancy in the complex processes of research, social organization, and economic development can be maintained. In parallel to this cooperation, we carry out fundraising efforts that enables the maintainance of a constant investment in processes and the articulation of communities within the protected area, as well as the research effort that we develop with the communities.”
Connect with contributors
Other contributors
Fabiano Silva
Fundación Victoria Amazónica
Marco Pinheiro
Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones de la Amazonía
Mariana Macedo Leitao
Parque Nacional do Jaú
