Persistence and change in protected area management: Human occupation as a political pressure point in Sao Paulo, Brazil

This dissertation analyzes the effectiveness of institutions for nature conservation by studying the management of environmentally protected areas in the State of São Paulo, Brazil in the last two decades. Using the issue of illegal human occupation to guide research in four protected areas, the dissertation addresses the question of how management has confronted the disjunction between legislation barring occupation and the reality of occupation on the ground in these areas.; I examine the legal, governmental, and practical structures for the administration of protected areas. The research finds that government agencies relegated decisionmaking responsibilities on human occupation to the managers and staff of protected areas. The staff, in turn, developed informal measures and agreements to attempt reconciliation of occupation and the legal mandate. These unofficial strategies were often plagued by inconsistency and other weaknesses.; Delegating responsibilities to the field for addressing human occupation, however, allowed the state agencies to protect their basic authority and functioning in the environmental sector. The state agencies accommodated divided opinions in conservation circles and among their own staff, enhancing the agencies' resilience in the face of a contentious debate and unresolved questions on how to approach human occupation.; In addition, granting significant autonomy to the managers of protected areas contributed to a form of adaptive management on the ground. In granting staff latitude in addressing specific problems in protected areas, the state agencies ceded decisionmaking capacity to those most familiar with the situations, most closely linked to information, and most intimately involved with residents and other actors.; While this brand of adaptive management was flawed in some respects, it exposed managers to new ideas and possibilities on the ground. International, national, and local influences spurred modifications in strategies in the field, which eventually filtered up to the state agencies. Recent initiatives for significant changes in state policies reflect the managers' response to pressures from communities and other actors. The openings offered by adaptive management permitted occupants in protected areas a surprisingly strong voice in pushing for change, with positive implications for the success of conservation and sustainable development in São Paulo.