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Environmental education as a co-management strategy for sustainable use of the beach clam Tivela mactroides in Southeast Brazil

2016; Frontiers Media; Volume: 3; Linguagem: Inglês

10.3389/conf.fmars.2016.05.00001

2296-7745

De Miranda Grilli Natalia, Denadai Márcia, Alexander Turra,

Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies

Event Abstract Back to Event Environmental education as a co-management strategy for sustainable use of the beach clam Tivela mactroides in Southeast Brazil Natalia De Miranda Grilli1*, Márcia R. Denadai1 and Alexander Turra1 1 Oceanographic Institute of University of Sao Paulo, Department of Biological Oceanography, Brazil The beach clam Tivela mactroides is an abundant bivalve mollusk of Caraguatatuba Bay, Sao Paulo State, Brazil. This animal has great importance to the region regarding its ecological and economical role. The main users of this fishery resource are the local community and tourists, which collect the clam for their own consumption. Nevertheless, during summer the population of Caraguatatuba City doubles due to the huge amount of tourists that spend their vacations on the beach. In this period the region receives more than one hundred thousand of people. Consequently, the environmental quality of the Caraguatatuba Bay decreases because of the inappropriate disposal of sewage and human general waste. Since T. mactroides is a filter feeding animal, it may absorb pollutants from the seawater, causing food poisoning if consumed in this particular case. However, the majority of people that consume the beach clam are not aware of the risks that it may pose. Management strategies considering both biological (resource) and social (users) aspects are needed in order to reconcile tourism, food extraction and conservation of the region. Nonetheless, management actions orientated towards small scale fisheries are commonly neglected in Brazil. Usually, the decision making processes are government centered with low or nil public participation. In this scenario, we believe that the implementation of co-management policies is very appropriated to achieve a more sustainable use of the fishery resource T. mactroides. This management approach is based upon high public participation in decision making, power and responsibilities sharing, and partnership between users, government, research institutions and other social actors. Education and communication programs, information sharing and acknowledgment of local fishery and culture are among the factors that foster fishery co-management implementation. Accordingly, environmental education programs focused on instructing the main users of T. mactroides might be one powerful instrument towards the sustainable use of this valuable fishery resource. Therefore, this research developed non-formal environmental educational (NFEE) activities in the summer of 2014 and 2015 in Caraguatatuba Bay. Our goal was to present the ecological, social and economical relevance of the clam to local community and tourists. Additionally, alerting the public about coastal and marine pollution from human activities and how it links to the risks of T. mactroides harvesting and consumption. Besides, we critically analyzed our methodology, considering the need for the implementation of co-management strategies for this fishery resource. We chose to develop our activities during summer time in order to reach the largest amount of people as possible. We tested the hypothesis that our activities in 2014 would have an impact on the users of Caraguatatuba Bay so that peoples’ understanding about T. mactroides and marine pollution would be higher in 2015 than 2014. We developed nine posters about T. mactroides and its life cycle, feeding habits, population growth, ecological relationships, socioeconomical relevance, risks associated with its consumption, and coastal and marine pollution from recreational and economical human activities. These posters were presented in two tents, which were set up daily on five beaches of Caraguatatuba Bay (each day in a different beach). After the posters explanation we conducted an interview with the public in order to assess their understanding about the beach clam. This interview was applied only to adults. We prepare a set of playful and pedagogical activities to introduce the aforementioned topics to the children. Also, we produced leaflets that were distributed on the beaches and to the local commerce. Quantitative data from the interviews were statistically analyzed by T-test and Chi-square tests while qualitative data were analyzed through a system of categorization by similarity. Additionally, we considered the management proposals for T. mactroides elaborated by Turra et al. (in prep.), to discuss upon the importance and strategies of environmental education actions. In total, we distributed seven thousand folders and applied 301 interviews. Based on them, we verified that these measures had no assessable impacts on public’s understanding about T. mactroides or marine and coastal pollution issues and its consequences on human health, between the two periods. However, the data from the interviews also strongly indicated that the NFEE activities should be maintained and enlarged. Our analyses provide a plan of future actions for co-management implementation and sustainable use of T. mactroides. This plan includes: i) improving the current educational material and producing new ones, such as books, banners, lectures and workshops; ii) setting partnerships with local community association, fishermen association, government (city hall, tourism, environment and education departments, municipal schools) and local restaurants; iii) encouraging co-management strategies; iv) increasing NFEE activities on the beaches; and v) bringing together educators and target-actors through an appropriate discourse for each public. Actions targeting human behavior changes are particularly difficult to measure, specially concerning a short period of time. Hence we acknowledge that two summers are not enough time to detect behavioral changes of the target-actors and only the maintenance of the activities will tell us about the effectiveness of the method. In conclusion, we understand that knowledge sharing is the cornerstone for the implementation of any kind of participative management system that aims the sustainable use of natural resources. Environmental education is a formidable instrument in this process since it empowers the public to discuss with the decision makers about future management policies to be implemented. Therefore, the activities proposed in this research were the first steps towards a democratic, participative and sustainable management of the beach clam T. mactroides. References Turra, A., Xavier, L.Y., Denadai, M.R. Scientific contribution for the sustainable use of marine resources: study case on the clam Tivela mactroides (Mollusca: Bivalvia) in Caraguatatuba Bay, northern coast of São Paulo State. In prep. Keywords: Environmental Education, Co-management, Beach clam, Resource use, Tivela mactroides, Southeast Brazil Conference: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies, Porto, Portugal, 5 Sep - 9 Sep, 2016. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: 5. ECOTOURISM, ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OUTREACH Citation: De Miranda Grilli N, Denadai MR and Turra A (2016). Environmental education as a co-management strategy for sustainable use of the beach clam Tivela mactroides in Southeast Brazil. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.05.00001 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 30 Apr 2016; Published Online: 02 Sep 2016. * Correspondence: Miss. Natalia De Miranda Grilli, Oceanographic Institute of University of Sao Paulo, Department of Biological Oceanography, São Paulo, Brazil, natgrilli@usp.br Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. 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