Social Justice on the Caribbean and Latin American

Coast

Fabio de CastroCEDLA

Latin America and the Caribbean

◆ 20 million km2

◆ 570 million people

◆ 30+ countries

◆ History of social inequality

◆ Cultural and environmental diversity

◆ Vulnerable poor population

◆ 8% of the world population

◆ 25% of the potential arable land

◆ 40% of tropical forest

◆ 30-50% animal/plant biodiversity

◆ 23% of livestock

◆ 30% of freshwater reserves

◆ Important source of fish resources

LAC and Natural Resources

Conflicting Interests overNatural Resources

Employment

Food Security

Social Reproduction

Economic Growth

Regional Political Position

Climate Governance

Commodities Demand

Local

National

Global

LAC Coast

◆ Colonization through coastal zone

◆ Coastal ecosystems and population highly affected

◆ Limited regulations/enforcement

◆ Dual process

Frontier Unregulated Development

Urbanization

Overexploitation

Habitat Degradation

Pollution

Local Communities in Isolated

Areas

Community-based settlements

Local management system

Food security and income

Political invisibility

Recent Changes: Encounter of Two Worlds

◆ Environmental changesClimate: sea temperature, stormsResource degradation

◆ Economic changesNew frontiersInfrastructureLarge-scale activities

◆ Social/PoliticalPink tide Increased social organizations Institutional innovations

Increased Vulnerability of the Poor

◆ Living in fragile areas

◆ Insufficient land

◆ Insecure land tenure

◆ Reliance on natural resources

◆ Unemployment

◆ Food insecurity

◆ Increased risks - landsides, flooding

◆ Environment linked to social justice

discourse

Inequalities

◆ Power asymmetries: financial, information, political

◆ Value of natural resources

◆ Local, national, and international demands

◆ Distribution of environmental benefits, costs and vulnerabilities

◆ Adaptation capacity

Socioenvironmental Interactions State

Community Private

. Quotas

. Certification

. Infrastructure

. Taxation

. Co-Management

. Territorial Rights

. Technical Assistance

. Subsidies

Ecotourism

Supporting actors(CSOs, researchers,

donnors, midia)

Systemic Approach

Marine Protected Areas

Sector Approach

Value Chain

Inshore Fisheries

◆ Social value: employment, food security

◆ Different ecosystems (reefs, mangrove, lagoons, etc)

◆ Diversified technology

◆ Commons: difficult to exclude and implies subtractability

◆ Land/Water interface – systemic approach

◆ Multiple purposeLuxury food - export – industrial fishing and aquaculture

Standard food - regional market – local employment

Low-income food - subsistence - food security

Non food market – fishmeal, oil, other products

Fishing Intensification

◆ Absence of formal property rights

◆ New technologies since the 60’s

◆ New fishing frontiers

◆ Local resistance: fishing-related conflicts

◆ Erosion of local management systems

◆ Establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs):

ecological perspective, exclusion of local users

MPAs in Latin America and the Caribbean

Source: Conservation BiologyVolume 22, Issue 6, pages 1630-1640, 19 AUG 2008 DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2008.01023.xhttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2008.01023.x/full#f1

◆ Over 750 areas

◆ Over half in the Caribbean

◆ 300,000 km2

◆ 1.5% coast

◆ Under-represented areas

Category # %

Sustainable Use 76 17

No Take 13 7

Mixed 11 76

Brazil Coast◆ 8,400 km

◆ 70% GDP

◆ 34 ports - $100 billion/yr

◆ Large-scale economic activities: Heavily pollution industries

Industrial fisheries

Tourism

Shrimp farming

Offshore oil

◆ Coastal deforestation: 94%

◆ Artisanal fishing>40% fish landing

2 million people involved

Coastal Population◆ 40% pop. living in coastal cities

◆ 20% pop. living in coastal zone

◆ Traditional populations

4.5 million people

176 million ha

Indigenous

Non-Indigenous groups (Caiçaras, Jangadeiros, Maroons)

Landless peasants

Social Injustices

◆ Local communities: dislocated, fragmented, marginalized

◆ Threatened livelihood: Access to land and resources

◆ Conflict with large-scale fishers

◆ Habitat degradation

◆ Tourism development

◆ Urbanization

◆ Protected Areas – no take or restricted zones

Path for Social Justice

◆ 1980s: Rural social movements

Liberation theology

Greening discourse

◆ 1990s: Traditional territories

Indigenous Lands

Extractive Reserves

◆ 2000s: Broader perspective

SNUC: Sustainable territories

Marine Extractive Reserves

New ministries

Inter-ministerial arrangements

Marine Extractive Reserves◆ Unique model inspired from RESEX – Amazonian upland

◆ Community-based – site-specific territories

◆ Identity-based - culturally distinct groups

◆ Traditional knowledge

◆ Livelihood-oriented – tenure, employment, food security

◆ Multi-use land-sea resources – fishing, agriculture, forest

◆ Hybrid goals – conservation, livelihood, social justice

◆ Co-management strategy - participatory Management Plan

◆ Easy to create, difficult to implement!

Marine Extractive Reserves

◆ Proliferation of MER

◆ 28 MER – 735,000 ha

◆ 68 MER under evaluation

◆ Quick creation process

◆ Slow Implementation process:

Management Plan

◆ Increased restriction to local

communities

◆ Success and failure

Source: Diegues, A.C. 2008. Marine Protected Areas and Artisanal Fisheries in Brazil, pp. 8, 22http://icsf.net/icsf2006/uploads/publications/monograph/pdf/english/issue_99/ALL.pdf

Implementation models

Top-Down Social Inclusion

Bottom-up Social Inclusion

“Quick and dirty” process

Unclear local demands

Conflicting motivations

State and Elite capture!

Long and solid process

Clear local demands

Support from external actors

Complementing motivations

CHALLENGES AND TRAPS

Persistent Challenges

◆ Limited organizational capacity: state and communities!

◆ External pressures

◆ Lack of monitoring and enforcement

◆ Terrestrial approach to coastal zone

◆ Different perceptions between state and users

◆ Distrust on state agencies

New Traps◆ Cost of conservation transferred to ethnic populations

Transfer of tasks to users – overburden

Increased restrictions

De-peasantization: ecotourism, low impact “extractive” activities

Transboundaries issues

◆ Fragmentation of rural social movements

Ethnogenesis: identity politics

Polarization between “traditional” and “non-traditional” populations

◆ Reinforcement of Inequality

State “compliance” of social inclusion policies (“participatory” process)

Commoditization of poverty

Legitimization of unsustainable production elsewhere

High priced fish by industrial fishing/aquaculture - low priced fish by artisanal fishers

Final Remarks:New victories, new struggles

◆ New territorial models leading to new inequalities

◆ Decentralization and new social relations: state, elite

groups, researchers and CSOs

◆ Inclusion of ethnic groups leads to exclusion of non-

ethnic groups

◆ Ethnic communities beyond “traditional” life