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
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