Consolidation of Local Democracy In River Preservation And Fisheries Management on The Lower Sao Francisco River, Northeast Brazil

Abstract

"This paper focuses on the effects of institutional choices and recognition on decentralization of river preservation and fisheries management on the Lower Sao Francisco River, Northeast Brazil, especially since the 1990s. By emphasizing issues of inequities and marginalization that stem from identity politics and institutional choices, the objective is to understand how the institutionalization of participatory watershed and fisheries/aquaculture management programs increase or decrease the possibility of democratic action and democratic control at the local level. Grounded in a detailed ethnographic study in two municipalities, this paper explores how the decentralization of the Federal Government's Revitalization Plan in the Sao Francisco River basin changes access to democratic control over fishing resources. It finds that the decentralization of the Revitalization Plan in some cases expands and in others undercuts the possibility of democratic action, especially for historically marginalized local communities whose livelihoods have traditionally depended on the river habitat, water quality and flow regime. This paper also examines the extent to which elected municipal versus traditional fishing authorities represent the interests and needs of fishing communities with regard to fisheries management. It first traces the historical context of the relationship between fishing communities and state in the region, and then presents detailed findings drawn from two municipalities alongside the Sao Francisco River. It finds that the process of institutionalizing participatory watershed and fisheries management in Brazil has helped in some circumstances to undermine and in others to strengthen both elected municipal and fishing communities along the lower Sao Francisco River."