Building sustainability in marine-coastal ecosystems: an analysis of social-ecological resilience indicators and criteria of planning instruments in the Northern Coast of São Paulo State (Brazil)

Abstract

The development and implementing of conservation and management policies and planning tools have been recommended worldwide to promote social-ecological resilience and sustainability in coastal- marine ecosystems. The zoning of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and the ecological-economic marine zoning related to the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (EEMZ/ICZM) are tools of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) at local, regional and national levels that faces great challenges in developing countries. There is a considerable concern, particularly in Brazil, in academic and civil society, regarding the efficiency of these MSP tools considering how they are designed, implemented, integrated and, how they support management. The hypothesis is that the attributes and criteria that define marine zoning do not often stem from data that consider ecosystem's goods and services and the traditional ecological knowledge. Instead, they are established based on a few (if used) scientific and ethnoecological knowledge, enabling decisions to be influenced by political-economic interests. We consider that the adaptive and participatory management of coastal-marine ecosystems should be based on attributes and criteria focused on promoting resilience and sustainability in social-ecological systems, thus a range of social-ecological criteria and attributes must be addressed and analysed in an ecosystem-based approach. The post-doctoral research, in which this internship proposal is originated, aims to analyse the use of scientific and ethnoecological data during the historical and recent process of Marine Spatial Planning of two policies in the Northern Coast of São Paulo State/Brazil with a comprehensive focus on Araçá Bay. This is a coastal-marine area where Project Biota-FAPESP/Araçá has been producing detailed scientific data (physical, biological and social) since 2012. As a result is intended to build an MSP framework based on social-ecological resilience' and sustainability criteria. In this context, the proposed internship is intended to foster subsidies for the post-doctoral research project, through (1) Enhance knowledge over the recent discussions in MSP regarding social-ecological resilience and sustainability on coastal-marine complex systems by: comparing the outcomes from the post-doctoral research to the outcomes from the study cases carried out by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies; and discussing the literature in the working groups, seminars and workshops; (2) Building a MSP framework based on attributes and criteria of social-ecological resilience by systematizing and integrating the indicators surveyed along the internship with the attributes and criteria emerged from the Traditional Ecological Knowledge, the criteria assessed on the Marine Spatial Plans analysed, the Project Biota-FAPESP/Araçá data and the criteria addressed in international literature. These results, beyond the scientific achievements, has the potential be considered in the coastal-marine planning and management of Araçá Bay's and other marine areas in the world. (AU)