Livelihood strategies in a marine extractive reserve: Implications for conservation interventions

The marine extractive reserve (RESEX), a sustainable use and co-management conservation instrument, is increasingly being established in coastal Brazil because of international and national pressure to protect coastal-marine environments. RESEX establishment is producing ambiguous outcomes despite claims of protecting rural livelihoods. This paper presents the case of the Cassurubá RESEX and demonstrates that a recent fishery agreement contradicts with fisherfolk livelihood diversification strategies and produces differentiated impacts on households. The findings are drawn from mixed methods adapting a household livelihoods approach to develop household typologies. Three household typologies emerged: (1) high market orientation, high income, (2) low market orientation, low income, and (3) high market orientation, low income. Low income households are the most impacted by new institutions that contradict with temporal and spatial livelihood diversification strategies of resource users. Also, they have lost fishing grounds, material assets (gear), and access to subsistence farmland. These findings support claims that sustainable use conservation agendas need to better consider the differential livelihood strategies of fisherfolk, and other resource users, or efforts for livelihood protection and improvement will be undermined.