Paper short abstract:

The Marine Park Luiz Saldanha was created by a top-down administrative process. Weak governance and absence of local stakeholders’ participation generated conflicts. The Project MARGov proposed to develop a model of collaborative governance that can be extended to a future Protected Marine Areas Network.

Paper long abstract:

The Marine Park Luiz Saldanha was created by a top-down administrative process that generated conflicts, in particular with the local fishing communities unable to accept the restriction of their rights without being involved in the decision process.

Weak governance and absence of local stakeholders' participation in the management of Marine Protected Areas are obstacles to the sustainability of the Ocean. The model being developed by MARGov defends the sharing of responsibilities among stakeholders, namely in areas of coastal habitats and artisanal fisheries. The project aims to empower actors for change, by the intensification of the eco-social dialog; to strengthen the social and human component promoting active participation of local communities and structure a GIS to support the collaborative process and to become a database to support the development of actions for long term management;

Since 2008 MARGov Project (http://margov.isegi.unl.pt) is focusing in deconstructing a conflict through appropriate methodologies creating spaces of encounter of different interests, equalizing power. For this, specific techniques have been used and a plurilogue emerged out of a continuous collaborative process cherished by a diversified team operating in a multiplicity of spaces.

In this paper, the authors discuss the appropriated methodologies for deconstructing the conflict, their application in this case study, illustrating with examples along the process and presenting the results achieved by this continuous work with stakeholders, drawing lessons for other similar controversial contexts.