For my conservation class, I wrote an essay on the impacts of governance on human rights of fisher-folk in Lagoa do Peixe National Park, a conservation area in Brazil. In this essay, I suggest a shared governance approach may be better than state governance as top-down effects of state governance has lead to conflict, lack of empowerment and human rights violations. I also prove that conservation should be treated as a human rights issue.
Although the essay was focused on the human dimensions of conservation, I learnt a lot about the traditional ecological knowledge of the fisher-folk while researching. One thing I found interesting was that they have been opening up the lagoon annually, since at least 1820, to allow nutrients and organisms to get in, which has allowed for the ecosystem to thrive.
Note that the word count was 600, which presented a challenge in concisely including everything I wanted to say on the topic. From writing this essay, not only did I learn about social and human rights impacts of conservation (as the prompt required), but also about ecosystems in Brazil. On top of that, I improved my skills at writing concise papers that contain a lot of information.
