The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

The Protected Landscape Approach: Linking Nature, Culture and Community
Brazil’s coastal zone is traditionally an occupied area, with various and often contradictory
typical uses, ranging from strict preservation to high-technology activities. Particularly needed
in a region such as the Brazilian coastal zone are tools allowing landscapes and seascapes to be
worked in a healthy and sustainable fashion, rather than those that rely on the land to be totally
empty of people. Issues such as industrial-scale mariculture, overexploitation of fisheries, the
impact of tourism on local cultures, loss of self-esteem by traditional peoples when forced to
leave their lands – all demand treatment by a coordinated management system that allows all
sectors to be heard and respected.
There is still insufficient protected area coverage in the coastal zone and marine biome of
Brazil; this is especially true for marine protected areas. Following the creation of a protected
area, zoning is not enough to ensure its implementation; there must also be in place a
management system, including a management committee and plan. These should rely on
participatory and inclusive approaches to management.
While financial support is still a problem, it is not the only reason that protected areas are not
successful. There must be more emphasis on exemplifying through actions that will demonstrate
the potential of protected areas and their ability to link elements in the landscape and
seascape, both products and processes.
Innovative legal tools are now available in Brazil, such as easements, shared management
with NGOs, 6 and other possibilities currently available through the Brazilian System for
Protected Areas, including financial sponsorship and creating partnerships. These innovative
tools give real encouragement to conservation in a way that supports making linkages within
the landscape, and between the landscape and people. They require a new approach: learning
by doing.
The current challenge is to work with different protected area designations and tools, such as
the two discussed in this chapter, and to link them through a land/seascape approach in a way
that takes advantage of their strengths, linking people and nature for conservation. Brazil has
great potential to demonstrate an alternative for development that supports quality of life.
Coastal and marine protected areas are important elements that can contribute to this kind of
sustainable development through eco-tourism, cultural and historical heritage, local handicrafts,
fishing and aquaculture.
The ideal approach is one in which these activities are conducted with a view toward
maintaining a healthy and sustainable use of land and its resources. Protected areas contribute
to this goal by conserving and managing cultural and natural heritage – in other words, our
landscapes and seascapes.
6
Social Organization for Public Interest (OSCIP) Fed.Law 9790/99.
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