The role of cultural diversity and communal participation in wetland management in Brazil

Abstract

This article compares the livelihood strategies of two populations living in different Brazilian wetlands: the fishermen of the coastal floodplain of Marituba, at the mouth of S. Francisco River and the rubber-tappers of the Guaporé Valley. Both communities utilize the renewable resources of the wetlands on a traditional basis: fishery, small-scale agriculture and handicraft in Marituba, and latex, Brazilian nuts and fishery in Guaporé Valley. Both communities are in the process of rapid and intense socioeconomic and biological change. In Marituba, the sugar-cane plantations and the capital-intensive irrigation schemes are threatening the existence of the varzea (floodplain); in Guaporé, rapid deforestation is threatening the livelihoods of local communities. The reaction of these communities is similar: both are fighting for the conservation of the wetland ecosystems as conditions for the survival of their culture and way of life.