Elza Neffa

Conflitos socioambientais: o caso da carcinicultura no complexo estuarino Caravelas - Nova Viçosa/Bahia-Brasil

This article analyzes a socioenvironmental conflict in the municipality of Caravelas, Bahia / Brazil. The studied conflict emerged from the proposal for the establishment of what would become the largest shrimp farm in Brazil. The proposed area for the establishment of the shrimp farm was part of an important socioeconomic and environmental region associated to the Abrolhos Coral Reef Bank. It assumes that the lack of public policies that define the parameters of the decision-making for financing shrimp farming projects has allowed the establishment of shrimp farms along the Brazilian coast, without pointing sustainable productive alternatives, which consider the generation of employment and food production. The qualitative methodology adopted participant observation and fieldwork aiming to identify the environmental damage associated to shrimp farming and relate them to factors that contribute to the perpetuation of these predatory model and for the establishment of resistance movements in order to identify local potentialities and possible paths for a sustainable social and environmental management.

SOLUÇÕES TECNOLÓGICAS ECOEFICIENTES PARA O DESENVOLVIMENTO SUSTENTÁVEL: UMA ANÁLISE TEÓRICO-CONCEITUAL

The environmental issue involves the meaning of quality of life and well- being of nations that seem to be associated with economic growth and consumption. The environmental issue is a development dimension and should be considered at all levels of decision making in the political scenario. This paper presents a reflection on the issue of sustainable development and the contradictions present in the indication of purely technological solutions as strategies for overcoming the environmental crisis. As an alternative to purely technological solutions the concept of eco-development arises, as a way out of the development model that uses economic growth basically as a single measure of efficiency. We believe that environmental management committed to public planning oriented towards an emancipatory ideal is able to contribute to building sustainable societies. Even if we develop eco-efficiency, ecological modernization, sustainable development and the green economy, such techniques alone do not seem to provide effective solutions that generate a type of development that can promote structural changes in the system in terms of public policies and new ways of understanding and dealing with the theme of economic growth.

Forest species of coastal plain as potential tools for coastal management and social technology in Caravelas, Bahia (Brazil)

In Caravelas, located in southern Bahia state, the main vegetation formations are the mangrove forests and ‘restingas’ (sandbanks) presenting, the latter, a high degree of degradation. The aim of this paper is to describe the main forest species of these ‘restingas’ and their direct uses associated with the recovery and management of degraded areas and creation of jobs and income, making thus an important tool for integrated coastal zone. For this, elaborate floral listings and field visits were necessary for recognizing the environment. In the selection of species, a literature about the use, management and value of each species were used, and from there, four species with potential for generating jobs and income along of this proposal were recognized: Mangaba (Hancornia speciosa), Pitanga (Eugenia uniflora), Mangaba (Anacardium occidentale) and Aroeira (Schinus terebinthifolius). The first three are associated with the use 1 Biologo, Dr., Professor do Departamento de Ciencias Florestais e da Madeira, Centro de Ciencias Agrarias, Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo, Av. Governador Lindemberg, 316, Centro, CEP 29550-000, Jeronimo Monteiro (ES), Brasil. henrique.m.dias@ufes.br 2 Oceanografo, Dr., Professor da Faculdade de Oceanografia, Nucleo de Estudo de Manguezais, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rua Sao Francisco Xavier, 524, CEP 20550-013, Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brasil. mariolgs@uerj.br 3 Pedagoga, Dra., Professora da Faculdade de Educacao, Nucleo de Referencia em Educacao Ambiental da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rua Sao Francisco Xavier, 524, CEP 20550-013, Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brasil. elzaneffa@gmail.com Recebido para publicacao em 5/10/2011 e aceito em 27/03/2013

The contribution of ethnobotany in the elaboration of public policies on the environment - a challenge in bringing the discourse to practice

This study s main goal is to point out the obstacles with the transposition of Ethnobotanical discourse to social practice based on the transformations of political and legal environments in global and national scenarios. It presents the importance of popular participation in decision-making and environmental policymaking and focuses on the contribution of traditional people and their knowledge of actions in favor of environmental conservation. Using a qualitative research approach grounded in the theoretical context of the national and international emergence of Socioenvironmentalism, virtual database research (SciELO, Embrapa, Capes and BDTD) was used as a methodological tool to complete a comprehensive review of journal articles crossing the word Ethnobotany with terms such as environmental policy, public policy, environmental conservation, sustainable management, traditional knowledge and biodiversity. Through interpreting authors perspectives of Ethnobotany on environmental issues and the advancement of this field of knowledge toward its potential applicability of solutions to environmental problems, the findings of the study show the distance of the appropriation of ethnobotany as subsidy for developing public policies. Pointing out the difficulties in the approach to the practice of its discourse, we seek to study the barriers to implementation of Ethnobotany in the formulation of public policy.