Luciana Gomes de Araujo
About
I am a researcher at the Commons Conservation and Management Research Group (CGCommons), the Environmental Studies and Research Centre (NEPAM), University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil. I also work as a group facilitator in participatory methodologies related to community-based conservation and local development initiatives. I hold a PhD degree in Environment and Society from UNICAMP (2014) and my dissertation addressed an institutional analysis of small-scale coastal fisheries in Paraty, Southeastern coast of Brazil. My Master thesis in Ecology (2007) investigated ethnobotany at two Caiçara communities in the same coastal region. Prior to graduate studies, I worked in local development projects in the Brazilian Amazon region as a project manager in a conservation NGO (Fundação Vitória Amazônica, Manaus, Brazil). My research interests include Commons Theory, co-management and adaptive co-management, policy and institutional analysis, public participation, community-based conservation and development, social-ecological resilience, human ecology, fisheries and protected areas management.
Place
Paraty is located at Ilha Grande Bay region, in the southern coast of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. This region has been facing rapid social, economic and environmental changes since the 1970s. Its development has been shaped by tourism, fisheries, the implementation of protected areas (PA) and oil and gas enterprise. Those activities have affected the livelihood of indigenous and traditional communities as the Quilombola and Caiçara people living in this region. The overlap of Caiçara traditional territories and Protected Areas has led to several conflicts among Caiçara communities and Protected Areas managers as consequence of restriction of access to and use of natural resources in these areas. Some initiatives have emerged over the past decade in the region in order to deal with these conflicts. In this context, research efforts may focus on governance of local social-ecological systems, monitoring livelihoods and community conservation, social learning and stewardship, in order to generate information to contribute to community empowerment and participation in management of Protected Areas.
Research
As a post doctoral fellow I am beginning a research which will address aspects of participation and social learning resulting from the involvement of community members and Protected Areas (PA) managers in governance processes over the last 8 years. I also aim to monitor and provide expertise to PA managers and community members for the development and implementation of monitoring plans for fishing and tourism activities. During 2010-2014 I participated in the project “Community-based resource management and food security in coastal Brazil” (2009-2013), coordinated by Alpina Begossi/UNICAMP and Fikret Berkes/University of Manitoba and funded by IDRC-Canada, as a PhD student and facilitated outreach activities. Since 2009 I have been participating in research projects, workshops and co-authored papers aiming to contribute with knowledge on commons and collaborative costal management in Brazil. As a member of the Commons Conservation and Management Research group (CGCommons) I have been carrying out outreach activities in the community of Trindade, Paraty. These activities include (i) the development of learning groups in integrated conservation and development initiatives, (ii) the facilitation of community´s meetings and (iii) capacity building of boaters and fishers. Still as a member of CGCommons I am capacitated to train community people and managers to develop social-economic and ecological monitoring plans of coastal regions, based on participatory methodologies. Finally, I have been communicating the results of the research done by CGCommons in different arenas that congregate Caiçara and Quilombola people, government stakeholders and NGOs in the Paraty region and assisting Cristiana Seixas as a University representative in the Consultive Board of a Protected Area in Paraty.
Key Publications
• Araujo, L.G., Vieira, M.A.R.M., Seixas, C.S. and Castro, F. 2014. A gestão da pesca em Paraty: legislação, arenas e processos. In: Begossi, A. e Lopes, P.F.M (org.) Comunidades pesqueiras de Paraty: sugestões para manejo. São Carlos: Rima. 189-219p.
• Trimble, M., Araujo, L.G. and Seixas, C.S. 2014. One party does not tango! Fishers’ non-participation as a barrier to co-management in Paraty, Brazil. Ocean & Coastal Management, 92: 9-18.
• Seixas, C.S., Araujo, L.G. and Piccolo, F.B. 2013. Research and Scholarship on Natural Commons in Brazil. Journal of Latin American Geography, 12 (1): 135-156.