Participação social na gestão de unidades de conservação: uma leitura sobre a contribuição do Instituto Chico Mendes

Abstract

The "Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade" (ICMBio) is the federal
agency responsible for the creation and management of federal conservation units. Since its foundation
in 2007, ICMBio comes in a big process of structuring and institutional modeling, developing its strategic
plan based on Result Based Management. Among the legal previsions placed for the management of
protected areas is the need to manage considering the society involvement. This article, without pretending
to exhaust the subject, aims to register developed actions between 2010 and 2013 as long as identify and
analyze some normative documents, guidelines, promotional material of the Institute, to comprehend whichunderstanding of social participation ICMBio has been adopting. To do so, some principles are listed to helpas parameters in the analysis, such as the importance of participative management at all hierarchic levels in
their finalistic processes, the belief that society participation in management is the most effective strategy forconservation / preservation biodiversity; the importance of integrating protected areas in regional dynamicsand the need to arouse the feeling of belonging in society in relation to these units; the need to reduce the asymmetries between social actors to take part in decision making, so that the participation is more effective and qualified; participation as a dialogical process in constant learning; management councils as legitimate locus of management units and the need to educate servants for the construction of participatory processes in environmental management. The reflection generated from this analysis will allow us to begin the identification of progress, challenges, opportunities and weaknesses of the society participation in the management of protected areas, always seeking the improvement of administration and the effectiveness of these protected areas.