Valuing protected areas through scientific and traditional knowledge
Due to the low level of return of research results to the traditional communities of Soure Marine Extractive Reserve and the lack of recognition of the protected area and its sustainable extractive activities, the management of the area promoted a Research Seminar for adialogue between the PAs stakeholders, bringing the extractive populations as protagonists. The Seminar was attended by councilors of the reserve, the academic community, municipal government and extractivists. Its objectives were to share the knowledge produced of the PA, presenting studies on the use of local natural resources, social contextualization of the territory and resource management institutions, stimulating the generation of proposals for managing the development of the knowledge and surveying the main demands of the local community with regard to the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge by researchers.
Impacts
The activity was an important forum for the return of research and integration and provided an exchange of knowledge between actors from different parts of society, from the protagonists of local extractive production to the production of scientific knowledge and even managers and public policy makers, spreading knowledge and enhancing local production chains.
The event gave visibility to the protected area's management rules, spreading the importance of protected areas in preserving environmental resources and stimulating research activities in the unit by forming partnerships with different development institutions.
The participation of the extractivists in the round tables promoted at the event emphasized the importance of the protected area and the extractivists in the municipal economy, satisfactorily raising the self-esteem of the local residents, giving them a sense of belonging and citizenship where they were able to ask the competent authorities to implement public policies and actions related to the topics discussed at the seminar.
Once the results were returned, it was possible to encourage the participation of extractivists in the participatory monitoring of the protected area, generating subsidies for management dialogue with key bodies to monitor and strengthen extractive production chains.