Gestão do território em unidades de conservação de uso sustentável no Rio Grande do Norte: uma análise institucional da área de proteção ambiental de Jenipabu

Abstract

Throughout human history on earth, different societies have tried to seek alternatives to environmental problems, and one of these alternatives was the creation of protected areas, which are fragmented into several categories and the Sustainable Use Conservation Unit (CU) is one of them. The Jenipabu Environmental Protection Area (JEPA), with its 1881 hectares covering the municipalities of Extremoz (97%) and Natal (3%), located on the eastern coast of the state of Rio Grande do Norte (RN), is the result of the possibility of human interaction in a sustainable way. The various uses of the territory is the result of this human effort in the regulation of activities in natural and protected environments. Therefore, the present research aims to analyze the use and management of the territory of the Jenipabu Environmental Protection Area, debating the limits to sustainability of the dunes regarding rules, arrangements and conflicts in the use of natural resources. The methodology adopted is divided between bibliographic and documentary research, the first being focused on the survey and analysis of works already published on the JEPA, and the second oriented on normative documents of the JEPA, both procedures seeking to understand the socio-environmental dynamics and the transversality to the sustainability theme. The third methodological step is materialized in field procedures, which had the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework linked to the SES Framework, based on the institutional analysis of the JEPA from a survey on the participants and rules in use, as well as on the management of this CU, considering it as a correlated structure between social and natural elements. For that, semi-structured questionnaires were applied with elements of the IAD Framework, seeking the main participants, institutionalized rules and social arrangements created to enable the use of resources present in the geographic complex of the dunes in JEPA. Sustainability was analyzed at the JEPA from the action of selected key participants like buggy drivers, ferriers, and lookout workers in their most diverse modalities. The results provided us with insights into the socioenvironmental dynamics that are not only driven by mechanisms and official bodies, but also depend on the interaction between these members and the participants directly involved in the use of the territory, along with the dispute over natural resources. Therefore, forms of intensive use of the territory were identified, social arrangements created in order to make activities more flexible and to optimize relations between workers, natural resources, and tourists, thus creating situations of sustainable and unsustainable use. However, possibilities of conciliation between the participants in order to improve the activities developed in the JEPA are achievable.