Sustainable occupational opportunities in protected areas in Brazil

ABSTRACT

Protected Areas (PAs) are central to environmental conservationism. Nonetheless, their implementation affects life circumstances and opportunities of communities living within and nearby their borders. Aim: To layout situational maps of PAs in four Brazilian biomes to understand wicked problems of living nearby or inside PAs and discuss how occupational therapy can promote sustainable occupational opportunities. Methods: We used case study and Situational Analysis to deal with data from 20 PAs, 82 interviews and four months of observations. Results: PAs have a negative effect on people’s life by limiting job and income options, promoting unequal access and use of PA for different economic groups, among others. However, some positive aspects of PAs include the development of sustainable income practices, access to information, leisure and tourism to urban populations, and fostering social organisation of traditional communities. We, finally argue that occupational therapists can engage in this debate and practice with occupational-based projects guided by critical education and collective action perspective.

KEYWORDS:

• Occupational therapy
• sustainability
• situational analysis
• protected areas
• Brazil

Acknowledgement

ART would like to thanks Marina Caldas Verne, cultural anthropologist, for her unconditional support during data collection. ART and VS are grateful for Fernanda Vasconcellos commitment in transcribing the interview. VS would like to thank Karen Hayes for her comments in the late version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).