Conviviality and sustainability: Case studies on the governance of natural resources in Brazil

Abstract

The multiscale nature of the environmental crisis brings together scientific and political mechanisms that converge on a common discursive axis: sustainability. This text contrasts vernacular and modern meanings of the commons and suggests conviviality as a counterpoint to the dilemmas posed by nature’s hypercommodification. Based on fieldwork, it describes governance parameters in the meliponiculture chain and the fishery management of pirarucu (Arapaima spp.) in the Amazon and the palm heart harvesting (Euterpe edulis) in the Atlantic Forest areas. It explores particularities in these resources’ governance as it aims to highlight possibilities and limitations to conviviality provided by these activities. For the cases studied, the convivial perspective is limited to cooperativism directed by the market. Still, a communal sense taken back as a principle for political action can offer broader horizons for the sustainability of governance.