- Resource System
- Coastal marine ecosystem
- Resource Units
- Marine fish stocks
- Location
- Arraial do Cabo, Brazil
The Arraial do Cabo Marine Extractive Reserve (MER) and fishing community is located on a cape that extends approximately 40 km into the ocean about 164 km east of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The MER encompasses a total marine area of approximately 57 ha which is utilized by seiners/fishermen from four different beaches. The case study involves a time period which predates the 1960s and ends approximately in the early 2000s and draws on informal and semi-structured interviews with seiners conducted in 1999 to 2000. The analysis catalogues an action situation involving approximately 3,000 seiners organized in seining “work teams” that generally consist of family members. Migratory fishing stocks are the main fugitive resource units.
The original case study author focused on barriers to collective action and institutional performance. The case study has subsequently been used in comparative analyses regarding Ostrom's Design Principles (see bibliography).
Brady U, Arizona State University.
. 2004. From common property to co-management: lessons from Brazil’s first maritime extractive reserve. Marine Policy. 28:419-428.
. 2010. A Review of Design Principles for Community-based Natural Resource Management. Ecology and Society. 15(4):38.
. 2016. Explaining success and failure in the commons: the configural nature of Ostrom’s institutional design principles. International Journal of the Commons. 10(2):417–439.