Obstacles to the effectiveness of Protected Areas: Mata da Pipa State Park, Tibau do Sul – RN – Brazil

Abstract

Protected Areas, in particular Conservation Units (CUs), are the main forms of conservation of natural resources, through national and international efforts. In addition to the creation of the CUs, the effectiveness of these areas is essential mainly in the Northern Atlantic Forest due to its extensive fragmentation. The implementation of CUss created in Brazil ensures the conservation of geobiodiversity, even though most of them are not effective, reaching the goals of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. The category Park is the most difficult to implement. The conservation of the Mata da Pipa State Park (PEMP) is highly relevant due to the possibility to compose an ecological corridor in the area of the Northern Atlantic Forest and to house endemic and endangered species. The present study was performed in order to identify obstacles to the implementation of the PEMP based on data from documental analysis and qualitative approaches, such as interviews and participant observation together with the Management Council between 2016 and 2017. Issues related to financial and human resources; lack of land regularization; difficulty of communication and inertia in some moments of the responsible public agencies; insufficient supervision, and need to engage the local population of the Park were identified as obstacles to the implementation. Besides, it was recognized that the origin of these obstacles arises from structural and organizational problems of the Public Administration and the Judiciary, as well as from the lack of prioritization on the political will.