Non-governmental initiatives for the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of natural resources at Campinas Environmental Protected Area: contributions towards a transformative change?

Abstract

The current scenario of climate emergency and irreversible loss of biodiversity, caused by human actions, compromises nature's benefits to humanity - the so-called ecosystem services. Globally, there is a need for transformative change in social-ecological systems - i.e., for structural and paradigmatic change, and not just incremental one - that minimizes or reverses negative anthropogenic impacts on the natural environment. Thus, the number of initiatives that seek to promote conservation and restoration of biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources has grown. Identifying leverage points (key points of intervention) in a social-ecological system can be a first step towards promoting such transformative change. The Campinas Environmental Protected Area (EPA) is a sustainable-use protected area and has several initiatives that aim to protect fragments of the Atlantic Forest and its biodiversity, restore vegetation around water springs and water bodies , make rural production more sustainable, etc. Generating knowledge about how these initiatives operate, and whether they monitor their results, can help, in the case of successful actions, to promote similar actions. Using a social-ecological approach and participatory research methods (e.g., semi-structured interviews and participant observation), this project aims to analyze non-governmental initiatives (by NGOs, associations, collective and private enterprises) for conservation, restoration and sustainable use of natural resources in the Campinas EPA region. We seek to identify leverage points for environmental conservation and restoration. In order to do so, we will map the initiatives of interest, investigate what changes they have promoted in the environment and society, analyze whether their projects and actions are monitored and by which indicators. In the absence of monitoring efforts, we will co-construct indicators and a monitoring plan with the initiatives in case of their interest.