With the creation of the Brazilian System of Protected Areas (SNUC) through the Federal
Law 9,985/2000 and Decree 4,340/2002 that regulates it, councils were introduced as spaces
for consultation and deliberation, formalizing an instance of participatory management for
protected areas. In this context, we developed our investigation around the social
representation of the Consultative Council of the fully protected area Tocantins Fossil Trees
Natural Monument (MONAF), created in October 2000, with headquarters in the district of
Bielândia, municipality of Filadélfia, state of Tocantins. Its creation aimed to hinder the
trafficking of fossils in the municipality. There was no public consultation with the local
population preceding the creation of the MONAF. The Consultative Council was established
12 years after creating the Protected Area (PA). In this sense, the question that guided our
study was to understand how civil society representatives have expressed themselves in the
meetings of the Consultative Council (CC) throughout the existence of the PA and how these
expressions have impacted the management of the MONAF, as such spaces reflect the
intentions, dialogues, and disputes of the social agents that comprise them. The general
objective of the study was a systematic analysis of the MONAF Consultative Council.
Therefore, we adopted an interdisciplinary approach through qualitative research. The
procedure used was the case study, with investigation techniques including the collection of
bibliographic, imagery, and documentary data. The basis of the research was rooted in the
theory affiliation of Amartya Sen (2010), Maria da Glória Gohn (2011), and Demo (2009)
on democracy, social and sociopolitical participation in management councils as a concrete
instrument for the expansion of freedoms. The analysis of the documents chosen in the CC
investigative process took place through text clippings, following the guidelines of the
Content Analysis method. The minutes analyzed revealed three changes in the presidency
within 12 years and changes in incumbent and alternate counselors. In some minutes, it was
difficult to identify the members of the counselor board and even the execution of actions
appointed by them. On the other hand, some documents showed more transparent
mechanisms regarding the role of counselors, in the sense of exposing some demands,
explanations about arising questions, and the solution for them. It is noteworthy that not all
demands presented were met. In general, we observed minimal participation of board
members, in the sense that they mostly agreed with the agenda topics presented to them.
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