The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

12. Protecting landscapes and seascapes: experience from coastal regions of Brazil
different kind of protected area found in the region, which ranges from strict protection to
sustainable use categories, as well as protected landscape/seascapes.
Fortunately, despite several economic cycles of natural resources exploitation since the
European colonists’ arrival, there still remains a significant area covered with vegetation.
During the 20 th century, the concern for protecting the natural environment grew and reached
more and more areas in Brazil, which resulted in the creation of national and state parks, among
other protection tools, by federal and state authorities. While the latter part of the 20 th century
was a period of increasing awareness of the consequences of environmental degradation, the
century ended with fishing stocks declining, and local communities being forced to move to
large cities for a better quality of life, along with many other losses for the environment, culture
and landscape/seascape of Brazil’s coastal zone.
Protected by the Brazilian Federal Constitution, Brazil’s coastal zone is a fragile ensemble
of ecosystems in a transitional zone, encompassing some of the first lands occupied in the
country, where nature and native cultures have faced several threats over the centuries.
Sustaining multiple uses along its more than 8,000km, the Brazilian coastal zone concentrates
pollution effects, at the same time that migration into urban areas has taken traditional people
from lands they have occupied for centuries or more, and where they had practiced fishing,
hunting and cultivating. Brazil’s coastal zone is also where the greatest number of protected
areas are concentrated.
The Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Sustainable Use of Natural Resources,
IBAMA, is the federal agency responsible for protected areas in Brazil and is in charge of the
government’s environmental policies. In the Brazilian system of environmental protection,
IBAMA is the executor of directives from the central government agency, the Ministry for the
Environment. Generally each state has its Secretariat for the Environment and is able to keep
protected areas under its responsibility; as, in turn, do municipalities. However, the basic rules
are determined by federal legislation, and those imposed by state and municipal authorities may
only be more restrictive.
IBAMA is also the institution responsible for implementing Brazil’s National Coastal
Management Plan, which dates from the 1980s, and which brought many new approaches at the
outset. To date, the Coastal Management Plan, despite not achieving direct results such as
zoning or the implementation of state regulations, has led to many indirect positive consequences
for the planning and conserving of coastal resources. An important example is the
development of coastal zoning and coastal management planning at the state level in Brazil.
Moreover, concerns for the coastal zone and methods for planning have been adopted into
legislation and policies by state and municipal administrations. Finally, a number of NGOs are
actively working in Brazil’s coastal zone on issues related to fisheries management, protection
of endangered and threatened species (e.g., the golden lion tamarin), conservation of forests
and other ecosystems, and the needs of local communities.
Brazil’s national system of protected areas
Since 2000 Brazil’s protected areas legislation, Sistema Nacional de Unidades de Conservação
(SNUC) has divided the country’s national system of protected areas into two groups: Integral
Protection and Sustainable Use. The first group of conservation units is comprised of IUCN
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