Fernanda Terra Stori visited the Centre in 2018 to work with the Conservation Planning Group. We recently had a paper published from that visit. Fernanda described the social-ecological system of Araçá Bay in Brazil, a small-scale fishery community that has experienced successive disturbances due to development projects since the 1930s. As part of a major project that aimed to build an ecosystem-based management plan for Araçá Bay through a participatory planning process, the paper focused on investigating fishers’ traditional ecological knowledge to understand Araçá Bay’s small-scale fisheries social-ecological system. Traditional ecological knowledge proved important in providing historical environmental data regarding the impacts of development projects and supporting planning in disturbed ecosystems. Key lessons were that, to move towards social-ecological resilience, researchers and practitioners should consider traditional territories in planning and recognize local practices and social mechanisms when dealing with historical human-induced disturbances.
