Assessing the Role of Socio-Ecological Learning in Participatory Governance: Building Resilience in Six Brazilian River Basin Committees

Abstract

Brazil has embedded the socio-ecological learning process in the participatory management of river basin councils through its “sister laws” on water and the environment. GTHIDRO or, Grupo Transdisciplinar de Pesquisas em Governança da Água e do Território/Tecnologias Sociais para a Gestão da Água (TSGA), a transdisciplinary group of researchers at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, took these laws and developed new interpretations of socio-ecological learning. They incorporated an ethical component and a dynamic and complex program of participatory “cycles of learning” that brought committees and communities to a common understanding of socio-ecological processes, laws, and potential for collective action. Using resilience theory as a framework for understanding how to sustain and enhance adaptive capacity (Folke et al., 2002), this paper analyzes the processes of socio-ecological learning, including focus groups, physical dynamics that blend the conceptual with the physical, visioning, socio-ecological mapping, project planning and community celebrations through interviews, meeting notes, and written documents of the six case studies. The potential for socio-ecological learning as a tool for building the capacity of basin committees (Turvo, Ermo, Nova Veneza, Orleans e Braço do Norte in the southern part of the state, Urubici in the mountainous region, and Concordia in the middle eastern part) to plan and implement projects is substantiated as an important tool for building the resilience of the combined systems. The case studies indicate that their greatest achievement is the Strategic Planning Model for Sustainable Development, entitled PEDS, which diagrams how to improve the management core group’s capacity to plan and implement projects of their own design, using strategies they have learned and networks they have established in their watershed and state. While the potential for conflict over water and energy between the various economic sectors is strong in Brazil and elsewhere, with the GTHIDRO model the potential for collaboration on resource issues becomes even stronger