The dissertation deals with the contribution of partnership in the context of environmental governance in community forestry for the management of natural resources and local development in public forests of the Brazilian Amazon. The specific objectives were to understand the mechanisms of partnerships and how they influence the implementation of community forest management in public forests; to understand whether there are uneven power relations in partnerships and what partners do to compensate this imbalance of power and; to analyze the benefits of partnerships on implementation and consolidation of community forest management, proposing recommendations for the pursuit of local development based on the management of natural resources. The theoretical concepts underlying the study are environmental governance, partnerships and local development as these three concepts involve different stakeholders acting synergistically to promote improved quality of life, social wellbeing and sustainable use of natural resources. The methodology focused on a case study of a community-based cooperative that runs forest management in the Tapajós National Forest, West of Pará State. The research results reveal that the community-based forest management was implemented and enhanced by a partnership among different actors, involving government, civil society, enterprise, university and local communities. The results also show uneven power relationships among partners and lack of strategy for partnerships, which weakens the social capital previously established. Yet partnerships contribute to the collective management of forest resources, which is efficient and qualified because it contributes to job generation, income increase, and technical and vocational training of forest dwellers. The community-based forest management model in the Tapajos National Forest is regarded as a national and international reference being the result of the performance of different institutional, political and technical partners. Each partner through its unique expertise providing support for the local development in the West of Pará, Amazônia.
|
