Sixteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

The creation of Conservation Units (CUs) has been one of the most important tools for nature conservation, with the objective of preserving important natural areas. The use of this conservation model in Brazil however has raised serious socio-environmental contradictions, affecting the permanence of traditional populations in its territories, such as the caiçaras in the Lower Ribeira Valley. This paper reports on a study of the use of the category of Extractive Reserve Conservation Unit (RESEX) with the case of the RESEX Tumba Island, located in Cardoso Island in the city of Cananéia (São Paulo State). This area was created to help preserve the area associated with the permanence of the caiçaras in the territory in order to conserve its economy and its culture. This culture constitutes the Brazilian socio-spatial formation, and thus should be valued as cultural heritage. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the formation of the Caiçara territorialities of the Lower Ribeira Valley and how the use of the Extractive Reserve category reaches (or not) its social and environmental objectives. In order to achieve this, a literature review was completed using the keywords; consultation with the Tumba Island Extractive Reserve Utilization Plan and the Conservation Units System Law document; fieldwork was conducted with interviews with residents and members of the collective organization of residents of Marujá, with presentation and approval of the research at a meeting of the RESEX deliberative council; and data analysis by comparative analysis in comparison with the literature review.