Bens comuns e desenvolvimento sustentável: As contribuições da Área de Proteção Ambiental Costa dos Corais

Abstract

Common-use resources produce goods that combine characteristics of both private and public goods, making the management of these resources more complex. The Costa dos Corais Environmental Protection Area (APA) was established between the states of Alagoas and Pernambuco with the main objective of conserving coral reefs, seeking to organize economic activities that use common resources in its area of ​​influence. This paper presents an analysis of the contributions of APA Costa dos Corais to sustainable development in the North Coast region of Alagoas, which comprises the municipalities of Passo de Camaragibe, São Miguel dos Milagres, Porto de Pedras, Japaratinga and Maragogi, whose economies exploit the resources of the Beach Zone (ZP) and the Visitation Zones (ZV), better known as natural pools. In addition to the socio-economic and environmental characterization, we characterized the environmental governance organizations and institutions operating in the region, using secondary and primary data from semi-structured interviews. We conclude that the implementation of the APA Costa dos Corais generated a great benefit to local socio-biodiversity by regulating and disciplining socioeconomic activities, exerting a strong influence on the municipalities covered, in view of the role played by the main manager of the APA, ICMBio Costa of the Corals, for two reasons: the quality of its bureaucracy compensates the weakness of municipal and state governments in the environmental management of the region, and the polycentric nature of its management, shared with all socioeconomic segments involved, corroborated by the high degree of legitimacy of the agency expressed by the interviewees.