Avaliação da participação da comunidade de Guengo no maneio dos recursos naturais

Abstract

The present study evaluates the participation of the Guengo community in the management of natural resources. The study assumed a qualitative approach that consisted in analyzing, in- terpreting and describing the information that characterizes the complexity of the study. As for the technical procedures, this is a field study, whose data collection instruments were the structured interviews and the simple observation. Sampling was for convenience or accessi- bility, selecting 18 community members (informants) of whom two are part of the community administrative structure namely the community leader (régulo) and the secretary. The study found that the community of Guengo is organized into two associations with distinct ap- proaches where each one is represented by a member of the community and their activities have technical support from the REM field agents. It has also been found that these associa- tions have not complied with some prevailing precepts so that they are legally recognized and this has had implications on the issue of access to benefits. Associated with this, it was also observed that most of the individuals are not affiliated with the community associations and two motivations are behind this question, namely the seasonality of these and the low indi- vidual income. It has also been found that there are predominantly unilateral community meetings where EMN field staff and project funders transmit the information to the commu- nity that simply assumes the role of a passive recipient without playing any role in the deci- sion-making process. The study also showed that the community has not yet appropriated the projects due to the lack of alignment between the objectives of the projects and their aspira- tions that are limited to the improvement of living conditions. And finally, it was observed that the community does not have access to a 20% rate due to reasons that call attention to the organization of this one with particular emphasis on aspects inherent to the opening of bank account in the name of the community as well as the registration of associations at the Dis- trict Administrative Post.