Abstract ID: 599

A Policy and Institutional Framework for the Co-Management of the Lower Amazon Floodplain

A major experiment in the co-management of floodplain resources is underway in the Lower Amazon region of the State of Pará, Brazil. This process grew out of the efforts of floodplain communities to take control of local lakes and implement collective agreements regulating lake fisheries. Three main phases can be identified in the process involving different floodplain resources and habitats, and community and governmental institutions. In the first phase, beginning in the early 1990’s, Ibama in collaboration with local Fishers’ Unions and NGO’s defined criteria and procedures to legalize collective fishing agreements and integrate them into a formal policy and institutional framework for the co-management of floodplain fisheries. By 2001 a regional co-management system consisting of 7 regional fisheries management systems had been set up covering 2600km2 of floodplain and integrating between 35-40,000 people from 170 communities. In the second phase the Public Ministry, floodplain communities, and other local institutions developed legally binding agreements, Terms for Adjustment of Conduct (TACs), to regulate cattle grazing on floodplain grasslands. Over the last five years, TACs had been implemented in 51 communities of the Santarém region. The third phase, now underway, involves development and implementation of a policy for floodplain property rights that is compatible with existing participatory management systems for fisheries and cattle grazing. In 2006 Incra began implementation of a settlement and land tenure policy based on the Agroextractive Settlement Project (PAE). Some 41 varzea PAEs have been created in the Lower Amazon, each including one or more preexisting floodplain communities. This model could provide an effective policy and institutional framework for sustainably managing floodplain resources. However, this will depend on a major effort by grassroots organizations, government agencies and ngo’s to develop the organizational and technical capacity needed for the effective implementation of this new settlement model.

Session:  Public Policies and Sustainable Development - Sustainable management of natural resources and biodiversity in central Amazonian floodplains.

Presentation Type:  Oral