Emancipatory Partnership and Advances in Citizenship: Struggles for a Sea-Land Territory in Brazil

Abstract

The Brazilian coastal zone is a territory of economic dispute among several sectors, including oil and gas, industrial fishing, urbanization, tourism and, therefore, real estate development. This process of structural and economic change along the coast of Brazil has resulted in the expulsion of many traditional populations from their territories. Prainha do Canto Verde is a fishing community that has built its own resistance to numerous drivers of change over the last 40 years, especially predatory lobster fishing and land grabbing to support different projects of the tourism industry. In this chapter, I aim to retell this story of resistance, looking for the factors and actors that contributed to this community being successful in coping with the drivers and sustaining their territory and livelihoods. I carried out life-story interviews with 38 community leaders and semi-structured interviews with nine other stakeholders. In order to understand local organization and current governance processes, I also undertook participant observation of meetings, daily work of public managers and other community events for 45 consecutive days. We found there to be a long-term process of building citizenship, supported by emancipatory partners. The achievement of autonomy in managing projects has brought social learning and advances in citizenship and well-being, such as education, health, and housing. After more than 20 years of struggle and resistance, the community required the implementation of a protected area to guarantee the collective rights of the territory, their livelihoods, environmental conservation, and sustainable use of marine resources. Despite current local conflicts, the principles of liberation theology that guided resistance in the 1980s still persist in the community. The partnerships in this story are in contrast to short-term philanthropy or assistance and reflect political organization and the struggle for territorial rights.